


Stitch in Time

by pok3d3x



Series: Oath of the Gaywatch [4]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting to Know Each Other, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Time Travel, zeleren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2018-09-06 06:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 101,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8738089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pok3d3x/pseuds/pok3d3x
Summary: Ral has locked himself up in his lab, and it's starting to draw attention. He's been missing Guildmeets and there's going to be a lot of paperwork if he doesn't start showing. Jace decides to check on him, which leads to getting caught up in the mad inventor's project and an adventure he could never have expected.Follows Lightning Bolt, but is readable on its own.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Tried (and failed) my very first NaNoWriMo this year, and this is the result. I'm still continuing it, so it will end up well past 50,000 when it's finished, but I was about 10,000 words short for the month. Lines up with end of semester, so hard break. I'll try again next time when I don't have classes uwu;
> 
> This is set in the same overarching universe as Looking Back, about three or four weeks after that particular story. I'll probably sort these all into a series. I've been affectionately calling this group of stories my Gaywatch, and the name might just stick. This story is pretty gen, but it does have canon typical horror and violence, as well as suggestive themes. Ral's mouth needs soap and sometimes various characters say some pretty unenlightened things, but all par for the course in everyday life.
> 
> Big thank you to my beta, MsChievous! First time ever having a beta, so that's pretty nifty, and she's super kind and so cool for taking time out of her hectic schedule to beta some of my work :D

Jace knocked at the steel door once again, looking around and ducking his head at the attention he was getting. He was sure glad he'd raised an illusion to discourage attention; he couldn't imagine how much more he would draw without it.

The door was rusted but sturdy, and it had years of peeling paints flaking off in brilliant reds and blues. It made Jace wonder how long Ral had been affiliated with the Izzet. He'd obviously been important enough to have his own lab for at least a decade.

In a voice that got louder as the heavy foot stomps came closer, a muffled yelling came through," I told you to leave me alone, Kreg. If you've sent one more damned weird, I'm going to—" The door wrenched open and his shout fell silent on his lips as a confused light dawned in his eyes. "Oh, it's you," he said with a downturned quirk of his lips, voice drawling with bored indifference. Ral's mind spiked with anxiety however, and Jace found himself backing up reflexively as he felt the static tension in the air, the hairs on his arms standing on end.

Jace retracted his mind, remembering the other mage's distrust of his magic, and looked at his feet awkwardly. He didn't actually have a plan of what to say, which made him feel even more uncomfortable in his own skin than he was used to, but he was… concerned. Ral Zarek had missed three Guildmeet assemblies now, and word was he hadn't left his lab in over two weeks.

"What do you want?" Ral demanded, trying to come off as annoyed. He ran a hand through his greasy hair and grimaced. He couldn't remember the last time he showered. Perhaps three days ago? He remembered prying himself from his work long enough to shower once in the last bout of fervent research.

"I…" Jace looked down to his handful of papers, remembering belatedly the paperwork Lavinia had thrusted at his person as he mentioned he was heading out. He hadn't actually mentioned he was heading to the Izzet League, but regardless she was apt to hand them to him. "I have notes," he said, cursing the confused tone in his voice.

Ral sighed and mumbled," I missed some meetings." He reached out for the stack of paper, already annoyed with the reading that he knew would take him longer than he really felt like spending.

His hand retracted as something started sparking back in the lab and Ral just let out a defeated sigh. "Not again…" His eyes set in annoyance, red and shadowed like he was days behind on sleep, Ral looked back over his shoulder.

"Need any help?" Jace offered lightly, looking past Ral and seeing a small device on the work table hooked up to a generator that seemed to be the source of the sputtering bits of metal and energy.

"You're no inventor," Ral said dismissively.

"No," Jace agreed, then smiled slightly and said," But I know a fair bit about artifacts and I'm a fan of puzzles."

Ral gave him an enigmatic look, mulling Jace's presence over for a brief moment, then shrugged and waved him in. "You can check my math or something."

Jace laughed and agreed," So long as it's not written on Azorius grade legal paper, sure. I'd love to."

Jace set the papers that Ral never took on one the many tables that filled the rather impressive lab, managing to find a enough free space to fit them. The stack of orderly paper looked so out of place in Ral's space. His eyes ran over the myriad of projects Ral had going, or rather the impressive amount of projects he'd abandoned due to his short attention span.

Crumpled papers were shoved into Jace's hands as he turned back to Ral, and he looked down to see barely legible numbers scrawled on paper that definitely didn't meet Azorius standards. "I didn't mean the paper had to be to Gruul standards," he joked, but bit his tongue as he received a harsh glance from Ral.

With a crumundgy scowl, Ral grumbled," Try not to blather or what not. I don't like to be distracted while I work."

It was very different from what Jace was used to. He was used to having an assistant for _his_ research. He was the Guildpact. People bent over left and right for him as much as they begrudged his title. He'd come a long way from being Tezzeret's lackey, and apparently he had become a little pretentious in that time, not that he'd ever been exactly humble.

"Right," Jace muttered with a quick nod. His palms were getting sweaty and he held the notes with the tips of his fingers. Why did he feel so nervous? He paged through quickly, trying to figure out what he was doing.

"The math's off," Ral explained, pointing at the notes with a quick bob of his hand. "I'm trying to stabilize the field, but I can't quite get the variance correct. Needs to fluctuate to—"

Jace gaped as he looked at the figures before him and sputtered," Are you trying to—" He looked up and saw Ral's smirk. The storm mage closed his eyes, raised his brow, and shrugged, his smug smile only widening. Ral couldn't brag harder if he actually spoke.

A slightly more serious mien took over. "This work's important to me. I've been working on the theory behind all of this for almost a decade now." 

Cracking his eyes to glare at Jace, he tagged on," You should feel honored to get to see it." 

He'd never let his underlings help him with this project. Turning about and going back to his prototype, he found himself trying to cover his confusion. Why in the multiverse was he letting Beleren of all people look at his beloved project?

When he was pretty sure his face was composed, he glanced over to Jace. The other had curled up in a corner and was currently sketching his equations in the in the air, whisps of blue coloring his tracing so Ral could almost read it. He wore a serious expression, and he looked so focused on what he was doing, Ral wondered how big an explosion it would take to startle him.

Chuckling to himself as he imagined doing so, he got busy again, running his trials and taking dutiful notes. His eyes were so very heavy, but he pushed on. He was so close—so close to cracking the missing piece for his work! Now wasn't the time to give up for mere sleep when he may have all of the time in the world for it later.

Defeat came with a solid thud as his head hit the desk, and Jace looked up in bewilderment, pulled out of his deep thinking and momentarily forgetting where he was. Right, Ral's lab. He'd accidently got himself wrapped up in another tantalizing puzzle in the lab of Izzet's mercurial maze runner and failingly dependable delegate, Ral Zarek.

Jace wanted to continue working on the math, but he felt awkward staying in Ral's lab—and judging by how many empty ration tins littered the floor, probably at least half home. He also figured it would not end well if he took Ral's work with him. So, he splayed the papers before himself, muttered arcane magic under his breath, and committed everything fully to memory. The door barely clicked as he left as soundlessly as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

"Does he know you're working on that?" Lavinia asked as she handed more paperwork to Jace. He looked up from the papers that were definitely not the trade agreement forms from the Orzhov and Simic. She decided privately that she'd let him have a break after the contentious meeting he'd had to survive through earlier.

"Does who know I'm working on what?" Jace asked innocently.

She smirked and lifted an eyebrow in manner that conveyed she was calling his bluff. "Ral Zarek's handwriting is very distinctive. Next time you should transcribe it in your own handwriting."

He covered the notes a little and frowned. He hadn't exerted the magic to actually memorize the meaning of what he looked at, just the memory to recreate what he had seen. Thus, as he recalled the notes with his magic, his hand had put the curling threes, every halting dash, and every inkblot that had been on the originals.

"He invited me to work on it, but no… He probably doesn't know I'm working on it right now," Jace admitted, a little guilt creeping into his countenance. His need to solve the logic problem had overridden any reservations, but now that Lavinia brought it to attention, he was forced to look at it from more than just his desires.

She gave him a cryptic look that Jace had to reach into her mind to figure out. _You should tell him, or I might_.

Jace swallowed at the thought and quickly assured her," I'll let him know after the meeting today."

"Do you think he'll actually show?"

Ral _had_ missed three meetings in a row now without any discernable reprimand from their guildmage or any official notice of apology. There didn't seem to be much stopping him from not coming today.

Not much except to talk to Jace about the project. "I think he will."

"I should hope so. Four missed meetings would have to be dealt with."

Jace grimaced at the thought of the paperwork. He sure hoped Ral showed up. Lavinia seemed to echo his feelings, and she tapped the paperwork with a quiet, "When you get a moment." before leaving his office.

There was nothing he could do about Ral possibly not attending though, so he set back to examining the diagrams he'd had drawn up, letting himself once again be sucked into the black hole of puzzles.

The four hours before the Guildmeet assembly passed in an instant and Jace was almost disoriented as he was being ushered to join it. He slipped Ral's notes into his drawer, magically sealing it so no one could open it without the right words, and made way for his meeting, chastising himself for not reading up on the topics to be discussed beforehand. He considered asking Lavinia about it, but shame stomped out that idea. How could he admit he'd shirked his duties in lieu of an idle interest that had become too big?

"You'll want this," Lavinia said, handing him a single page with condensed notes of the work he was supposed to have already read.

"You're a lifesaver," he whispered in awe.

She gave him a knowing smile that held the barest edge of disappointment. "Next time I might have to take your toys away from you so you actually do your homework, Guildpact."

Jace frowned, but he couldn't find himself actually upset with Lavinia. She had a point, and he had a great responsibility to this plane. He nodded and sighed.

The room had gone through several remodels since they they started holding meetings. The initial table had been square, and had raised objections that it let some guild representatives sit next to the Guildpact and suggested favoritism. The rectangular table had suggested that he thought of himself as the most important, and while it had pleased the order loving Azorius and Boros, it had not gone over well with Simic and Selesnya (Emmara hadn't been upset herself so much as obliged to convey her guild's displeasure). Then they tried a circle, and still there were complaints. It was after the third table was chosen that Jace had read every individual's mind and realized there was no single table set up that would make everyone happy and he'd wondered how he'd managed to prevent the Supreme Verdict.

Now they were trying out a new approach of a U shaped table with him in the center. He honestly didn't see how this was any better and assumed he'd be changing it out by next meeting, but it was worth a try. At this point, he'd let someone sit on his lap if it meant everyone was happy. Well, he wouldn't let Exava come within an inch of him.

Every chair was filled by the time the meeting was set to start, all but one. He pushed the meeting out by ten minutes, hoping Lavinia wasn't already writing up a legal document demanding something be done about Ral's inability to do his job. Tajic looked impatient, though holding it in with well mannered stoicism. Exava didn't seem to care much, busy filing an ornamental knife to a wicked curve with delicacy Jace felt he never needed to know she was capable of.

Jace stood up, clearing his throat, and said," Well, I guess we should start. First off, to acknowledge the fruit of last meeting's disagreement…"

He broke off as Ral came bursting into the room, sparks hap hazardly arching across the floor and walls. Breath came heavy to him, and he was obviously sweating. It almost seemed he'd run from his lab straight here, and Jace realized he probably had.

Heaving a sigh as he tried to catch his breath and fiddling with the dials at his belt, Ral asked," Did I miss anything?"

"Only the chance to seem like a respectable delegate," Teysa cooly responded, not looking up from her manicured nails.

Jace held up his hands to stop this from escalating. Then, pointing to the empty chair, he answered Ral's question with less aggression," No, Guildmage Zarek, you haven't. If you'd please have a seat."

Ral grumbled darkly as he complied.

Jace couldn't help himself as he continued holding the monotonous meeting. " _I think I found the problem in the equation for proper energy flux. The variation you—_ "

Ral boggled and swiftly interjected aloud," You've been working—"

Jace looked up calmly and said with a cool, unruffled voice" Please, Zarek, if you have a complaint, could you please hold it until after Exava finishes her proposition?"

Ral cleared his throat and nodded sheepishly, feeling the stares of every maze runner bare down on him. He hadn't even realized Jace no longer had the floor. How did Jace manage to function in normal conversation while conversing in one's head as well?

" _Stay out of my damn head, Guildpact_ ," he snapped back once he was confident he'd only say it in his head.

" _I'm not reading your memories, just talking, I promise._ "

Ral crossed his arms and stared at Jace long enough that the Guildpact noticed and pointedly looked away. With a small frown that he hoped passed off as merely attentive, he thought," _Stop being so obvious. People are going to know something's up._ "

Ral rolled his eyes and looked elsewhere. " _How in the 'verse have you been working on my project?_ " He only had the one copy of notes, and he knew Jace didn't take them with him. " _Did you memorize my fucking notes?_ "

" _Perhaps_ ," Jace admitted. " _But you put such an interesting project in front of me. How was I supposed to just stop without figuring out the answer to your problem?_ "

While Ral could understand, Jace's answer didn't make him happy. " _It's still my project. You have no right to work on it without me._ "

Jace was pointing to Tajic as he spoke, but he was glancing at Ral. " _So, is that an invite to your lab?_ "

Ral looked up with surprise and had to process what had been asked for a bit before he could answer," _Yeah, sure. You didn't talk too much last time._ " 

Jace had to restrain himself from a small smirk at Ral's begrudging acceptance of help. Turning his attention back to Exava, Jace belatedly realized he didn't have this figured out quite as well as he thought he did. While able to keep the conversation going and hold his personal talk with Ral, he found now that he had no recollection of what Exava had actually been saying. He wore a restrained grimace as he peeked into other's minds briefly to piece together the discussion at hand.

" _So just what did you come up with that would account for the excess—_ "

Jace looked to Ral and flashed a small smile and excused," _I might need to pay more attention to the Guildmeet then I just was._ "

" _Guildpact. You are the incarnation of law and order on this plane. My plane. Do your damn job._ "

" _I know you think you're helping, but you're really just further distracting me from_ —"

"Well?" Tajic's voice stole Jace's concentration. "Do you agree?"

Some divine power, or rather hieromantic enchantment, saved Jace as he found himself answering with a string of law that perfectly answered the situation's problem. He couldn't even predict what he was going to say a second out, but none the less his voice came through unfalteringly and advised Exava and Tajic expertly. Their two minds perfectly guided the piece of his that wasn't truly his, and with a mix of mind reading and logic that had been worked out before he was aware of the need for it, an agreement was ironed out between their guilds.

By the end of the meeting, Jace was working hard to contain his excitement. Getting to look at the raw notes again, any revisions Ral had come up with on his own… Just working on such a complicated project really had Jace eager to flex his brain and win over yet another puzzle. 

Ral hung around, outlasting the other maze runners who had perhaps been interested in talking to the Guildpact one on one, but had run out of patience. Only Lavinia remained, standing dutifully at Jace's side with an armful of notes from the meeting. "Might I suggest, Guildpact, that you refrain from passing notes with Guildmage Zarek about your projects during Guildmeets?"

Both Jace and Ral had a look of, _busted_ , on their faces, and Jace asked," Was I obvious?"

"No," Lavinia responded calmly, starting to leave the two to their plans. "It was just a hunch, but you just confirmed it."

Jace pulled his hood up and over his eyes, a sinking feeling of idiocy resting in his stomach.

Lavinia stopped at the door, curtly bowing her head to each of them, and said with a bit of amusement in her voice," Have fun, boys. Try not to blow up Nivix. I don't feel like doing the paperwork tonight." With a coy smile masquerading as her typical prim countenance, she made her exit.

"I don't believe her," Ral muttered under his breath. "She'd just have a field day writing up reports on my death."

Jace shook his head with an incredulous grin. "She doesn't actually hate you, you know. She's just leary because us being in the same vicinity tends to go poorly for me."

He regretted his choice of words as they left his mouth, but he couldn't take them back now. Ral futzed around with his dampener idly, glaring down at the belt like it had personally offended him, his shoulders drooping and making his normally broad, proud form seem much more humble than usual. 

"I- I meant more when we were in the Maze, and before that," Jace offered, but he got the feeling he should really just shut up.

"Right." Ral looked up, poignantly not making eye contact with Jace as he said," Why don't we work on it tomorrow?"

Jace scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Okay."

The temptation was so great to work further in private before they met up—how could he make it through a whole day without fiddling with the formulas—but Ral had seemed a little upset that he had continued working on his own. It was his private project, Jace supposed, something that couldn't have been shared with another soul or it would be the talk of Ravnica already. While it would test all of his patience, he'd wait until tomorrow at Ral's lab to look more into the notes.

With the look of a child's resolve finally breaking, Ral met Jace's eyes, filled to the brim with excitement, and he eagerly said," Oh, who am I kidding, I'll have all the time in the world to pout once it's finished—do you need to grab anything before heading to the lab?"

A flood of relief washed over Jace and he grinned ear to ear. "My office is on the way out," he said perhaps a little too eagerly. He'd have to grab his notes so they could compare against the original set, hopefully able to find what changes were for the better, and which were for the worse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have control of my life. That's why I'm procrastinating and updating this story instead of writing my reports.

It was weeks of disjointed work before Ral's invention saw the light of day. 

Jace had gotten to the point of spending nights over, often accidently because he simply passed out, and had made his own makeshift bed out a few quilts in the same corner he'd claimed his first time in Ral's lab. He did manage to return to his mansion here and there, mostly only for a new change of clothes and the perusal of his personal library for research on the findings of others that might lend itself well to their current work.

He was pulled away from their work for Guildpact duties, throwing on an illusion of composed elegance when necessary, a handful of times. By some mercy, however, the guilds were relatively calm for once, and he only had minimal paperwork to do. Thus, Jace was able to pour himself over Ral's notes and composed at least twenty pages of his own.

Both men were obsessive, and it became clear quickly to both of them that the other would only enable each other's bad habits. _I can't think well on a full stomach_ and _For the love of the 'verse, don't open those curtains_ became easily accepted, only falling apart when Jace took a moment to realize his hand was shaking and bags nearly as dark as his hair underlined Ral's eyes.

"We should take a break," Jace announced, his voice cracking from disuse. He belatedly realized he hadn't spoken in almost 48 hours, as Ral really had meant it when he said talking during lab time bothered him. Not his own ramblings to himself, of course, but other people's speech if it wasn't directly tied to what they were working on and needed saying.

Ral didn't look up from his reassembly of his gauntlet. The mizzium plates fit together seamlessly, and such satisfaction bloomed in his chest that he didn't even complain about the other talking. "We're almost there," he said with an almost encouraging countenance.

"We're half dead mad-men, Zarek. Look in a mirror. You might as well be a freshly risen Golgari corpse."

"I resent, and probably resemble, that remark," Ral said with a glare as he set his tools back on the work table. He looked to Jace, only now noticing how wan his partner looked. Had his cheeks been that defined when they started? "How long have we been working on this?"

"I don't know. Maybe our first order of business once we're done should be to go back and count the days." _Weeks_.

Jace's stomach growled and he subconsciously began to chew the back of his pen, tongue curling at the taste of the ink from where he'd broken through to the filled center. Well, it had once been full. Now, only the dried residue of ink remained and it ran dry.

With a frown and disapproving eyes, Ral said in almost an accusatory way," You need food."

"Yeah, okay. And you need a full night's rest."

Sighing as he unhooked his gauntlet from his belt, Ral gave in. "Fine. We'll both get a good meal in, sleep a little, and maybe even shower before working more on this." His nose wrinkled a little as he realized it smelt like a couple of trolls lived in his lab. It wasn't exactly an unusual smell, what with all the goblin help and, more accurately, his tendency to get absorbed into his work and forget the world around him for more than a minute at a time.

Jace made his way slowly to the pile of rations Ral had pointed out to him when it became apparent Jace was more than content to give up decent food in the pursuit of knowledge. "You only have one ration left. Split it?"

"These rations are barely enough to count as a whole meal as it is. We're not splitting one, Beleren."

He stifled a yawn as he nodded in acceptance of Ral's decision. Now that he took a moment to stop his calculations, an overwhelming exhaustion was claiming him. Well, he supposed it was more accurate to say that it had consumed him earlier and he was only now realizing.

"I'll have Kreg bring us something to eat," Ral decided, calling forth a simple charm that alerted Kreg he needed her assistance. As if Jace hadn't spent more nights here than his own abode over the past few weeks, Ral offered," You can sleep here. It's not safe to wander home at this time of night."

"I think it's midday," Jace countered. A thin band of light from behind the curtains warned him how bright the outside world was.

With a dismissive and annoyed wave of his hand, Ral muttered," Whatever. We wouldn't want you to pass out on your way there."

"Aww, that might be the nicest thing you've said to me," Jace teased. A grin broke out on his face at the displeased glare he now received.

"On second thought, Niv Mizzet is due for his midday snack right about now…"

Their playful bickering was disrupted by an out-of-breath goblin coming through the front door. "You called, sir," she asked. She knew better than to keep her team lead waiting. The only thing scarier than Niv Mizzet was a man who had no qualms handing over his unsatisfactory recruits to the dragon.

"Fetch us some food. Make it snappy."

Kreg was out the door immediately.

"You should be nicer to her," Jace spoke up, his days of being the underling in an unforgiving organization creeping up on his thoughts.

Ral grumpily looked over and asked," What do you care?"

Jace couldn't come up with an answer, and he blamed it on exhaustion. He knew what really caused his silence. Cowardice. Even now, when he was arguably in the most control he'd even been, he was afraid to upset the status quo. Ral and he had been kind of getting along. Jace was afraid to offend him, even to defend someone he could empathize with.

Taking in Jace's silence, Ral reached down for his belt as nervous arcs of static crawled up his spine and put his hair on end. When Kreg returned with warm food from his favorite food cart all the way on the other side of the League's main square, Ral tentatively gave thanks, growing embarrassed by both Jace's and Kreg's looks of shock. They could keep looking at him like that if they wanted a real shock.

Looking to his food quickly as Ral's mouth drew back in a snarl, Jace smiled softly and ate his sandwich. That smile couldn't be made to leave either. He looked forward to tomorrow, anticipation curling in his stomach. They would surely finish soon, and Jace fervently hoped they could start testing the second they did.


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright, test seventeen," Ral said, not looking up from the gauntlet. His eyes drooped heavily despite the atypical full night's sleep he'd gotten the night before. The scratch of the pen coming to a stop told him that Jace was ready for the trial to commence.

They'd tested individual pieces of his invention to record if the power was consistent or if the extra power they realized one piece would generate might short the relays of another, but this was their first day of running the entire invention as a whole.

So many alterations had been made to his gauntlet, though it looked largely the same as it had. Only several newly fitted orbs of mana capacitor stones, pulsing as they glowed a brilliant blue, stood out on a quick lookover of the outside of the armament. Under the plating however, this gauntlet was barely recognizable compared its old model. The hours upon days upon weeks of work that went into its reconstruction only strengthened the storm mage's pride with the realization of his constant search for improvement and discovery.

Thus far, they'd only managed partial leaps, getting caught in seconds long loops where they saw partial images of themselves doing what they'd already done like they were following their own footsteps. While this may have dissuaded saner men and women from continuing their research, it only fueled Ral and Jace's need to _know. Learn. Understand…_

Of course, the model they'd constructed relied on Ral to be the source of energy, so there was no removing him from the equation. Oh, it'd be nice to send a different test subject, but the Izzet weren't particularly known for their safety or rationality despite their penchant for scientific discovery. 

Ral breathed in short bursts, preparing himself for great exertion like a powerlifter might before a big lift. He dropped to a sturdy stance as he looked to Jace and seriously said," This might start to get a little dicey. If I tell you to run, you _do._ Planeswalk to your beloved Zendikar for all I care, but—Get. _Out_."

Jace nodded in understanding. A few of the latest test runs already had him a little worried, the electrical charge in the air tangible and readily shocking him with static when he so much as moved. He wasn't about to question Ral's power—not after knowing firsthand just how devastating it could be.

Closing his eyes as he focused his mana, parting the positive and negative charges just so, Ral released an even larger jolt of lightning through his right arm than he had the previous sixteen times. He was approaching the dangerous zone of his magic, the point in which his dampener just couldn't keep up and could short out all together. The muscles in his arm tensed to levels they weren't able to of his own will, and the pool of energy that collected in his closed fist felt so close to escaping the gauntlet's pull, Ral looked up to Jace with frantic eyes and began shouting that he should evacuate.

To Jace's credit, he did follow the instructions and begin to run. Ral was obviously not as well versed in traveling the multiverse; expecting to walk with little warning was generally a poor life choice. Jace's legs took him to the door of the lab—which he dismally realized was solid metal—before the world slipped out from beneath him.

Out of the five stones on Ral's gauntlet, two on either side and one on top, three became steady in their light, while the other two ceased to glow whatsoever. The physical world they knew began to spin, disorienting them like their short bursts of the previous tests had. This time, however, the spinning didn't stop after a mere second, and the colors began to run together until it was like they were in the eye of a hurricane painted bright red and blue.

As the door was ripped from comprehensible sight, Jace looked back over his shoulder and marveled the dazzling light that almost consumed Ral's form. "It's working," he shouted with surprised glee. His voice was consumed by the twirling reality he found himself in, but Ral still looked back with excited eyes, flashing a large grin.

When the world stopped moving, they found themselves in an open square. It was dark out, the quarter moon almost at its zenith. Jace found himself struggling to catch his breath, the same tiredness that crossing through the Blind Eternities brought weighing on his chest.

The world around them was so different, while simultaneously familiar all the same. There was no doubt they still were in the League; red and blue banners were strung up everywhere in celebration of some event. Jace caught Ral's intense stare at one of these banners. The Izzet symbol wasn't the one with which Jace was familiar, nor was it the crest of the falling apart guilds he'd become acquainted with during his time as a professional blackmailer.

"That's… That's got to be the hundred thirty-ninth crest," Ral whispered with awe.

Right, the Izzet had a well known habit of reinventing their crest every seventy years or so. They were on their one hundred forty-first now, well, in the Ral and Jace's present.

Ral whistled at the astonishing implication. "We're at least fifty years in the past."

"We'll probably stand out like it too," Jace reminded as he felt the presence of people approaching. Their minds were hazy with alcohol, but that didn't mean they wouldn't recognize two strangers as not belonging in the middle of the street. He pulled at Ral's arm, rolling his eyes as the storm mage indignantly pulled his arm out of his grasp, and lead them to an alley way.

"We should be writing all this down," Ral enthused. "This is awesome!"

Jace set to that, writing in the air and sealing the message in his mind. Of course he didn't like to leave important things left to only the mind, writing it down physically would be necessary, but it made due in the meanwhile. He'd lost his clipboard in the timewalking.

"So you date us at probably fifty years back?" Jace asked for the official record.

"Well, actually. These banners are for the Mizzium Symposium, which only comes every nine years, so we're either eighty-one, seventy-two, sixty-three, or fifty-four years back." Those were the only years the symposium would be celebrated under this iteration of the Izzet symbol. It was one of the more short lived crests, at only lasting thirty-one years; initially Niv Mizzet had loved it and how it portrayed him looking down on the masses, but then he soon felt it didn't capture how sophisticated his thinking was. 

Ral had started toying around with a new design despite the current crest being well loved and only seven years old. It was only a matter of time before Niv Mizzet grew bored with it.

"Okay, fifty to eighty years in the past," Jace mumbled as he wrote. "That's certainly not a bad test run." A couple decades was no small feat.

They discussed the experiment and how the equipment was holding up into the first rays of dawn. They'd been traveling through the alleyways all night long, not wanting to stay still, but not really sure where to call it a night with Ral's lab and Jace's mansion not existing yet.

"Wait a second…" Ral stopped and a mischievous grin came to his face.

"What?"

"So we're like, fifty, eighty years back, and a zino's worth what?"

Jace shrugged. He'd only been on Ravnica for around fifteen years, and it wasn't like he got a public education here that would go through the economic history. "I don't know, like maybe twice as much?"

"I thought you were smart, Guildpact. Inflation doesn't work like that."

Jace rolled his eyes. He'd been simplifying it. Sure, inflation affected different markets like housing and food separately, but Ral didn't have to be a pretentious snob when he couldn't even ask the question well.

"A single zino will get me from New Prav to the Third Precinct or nice pair of gloves." His grin widened, if that was possible. "I got, like, forty zinos on me," he said with a chuckle.

"We can't change the economy, Ral. We should try to do as little as possible, just observe."

"I'm practically rich. That's like five hundred zinos just pocket change. I should invest it and make a fortune."

"I may not be the law in this time period, but I'm still going to go with that is illegal."

"Oh, please. With the Orzhov up to their shenanigans, who is going to notice forty more zinos floating around? A man can blow his week's pay if he wants."

"Ral. Your money probably hasn't even been minted yet."

"Ravnica gave up dating their coins thousands of years ago. No one would know unless they did a metallurgical test on them," Ral said with a dismissive wave of his hand. WIth how many changes Ravnica had undergone in how it recorded dates, history was a bit of a headache to discuss, and mints had forgone striking dates on their coins since the dates might be irrelevant in a decade or so anyways.

"Then I suggest you start testing and figure out which ones we can use. We're not going to introduce the future to Ravnica's past."

"Well, there's an interesting thought. Everything we have that's old enough to have existed in the past… It currently exists in two places right now. So if we spent it right now, and went back to the future, would that same coin exist twice? What if we went back to the future and nabbed those two coins that are actually the same coin, and traveled back in time again—"

"Ral. We have been timewalkers for less than five hours," Jace said as he held up a hand to halt the other's words. "Let's avoid temporal nonsense until we figure out if we're destroying our timeline first."

He was tired. He had weeks of fervent research behind him and had been walking all night. Jace didn't have the mental stamina to deal with Ral's propositions on temporal theory. Rubbing at one of his eyes as his other hand fell back to his side, Jace yawned and said," Why don't you find a few zinos that are old enough and we locate an inn to stay at. I'm too tired to do any difficult math right now." 

It would probably also take them a few days to build up enough energy since Ral could only generate so much energy—safely, anyways. It would be best to store it up slowly, and having a roof over their heads during the night would be preferable.

They more or less had a theory on how to get back to their own time. Like, they hadn't completely disregarded it… but the focus definitely had been on getting to another time with the assumption they could run the calculations later.

Seeing Jace yawn made Ral echo it and realize just how tired he was too. "Good thinking, Guildpact."

"You probably shouldn't call me that when the first one hasn't even dissolved yet," Jace pointed out.

"Beleren," Ral corrected with a shrug.

They were deep in the alley, and the sun had to have risen a fair amount with how much light they had without being able to see any streets. Jace looked down at his cloak, thinking back on the brief impressions the drunken strangers they'd almost bumped into had. 

He'd seen enough to know that Ral Zarek wouldn't stand out much in his clothes. The collar was wrong, and he should probably get around to covering his tattoo when he got the chance, but Izzet standard fair didn't change that much in a handful of decades, and it was never that unusual for an Izzet mage to stand out a little in awkward fashion that didn't seem quite current.

His cloak though… he remembered it being the height of new fashion when he first got it. The vendor that had sold it to him had told him that the weave was particularly resilient because of a new practice founded in the Simic Combine that involved an equally new hybrid Jace could barely wrap his mind around at the time even with the images he'd stolen from the vendor's mind. 

This material didn't even exist yet, and it wouldn't for at least forty more years. That, and if ever there was a more distinctive cloak, Jace had yet to see it.

Jace sighed and started undoing the clasps that held his trademark cloak in place. Practiced hands had the cumbersome cloak and jacket ensemble off in less than minute and he glared down at his hands that seemed to betray him as they bunched the blue fabric to his chest. If his eyes got a little misty, he would have denied it, but he'd been through a lot with his cloak. He'd survived so many nightmares, and pulled through so many arduous victories with it.

Jace ran his hands over the threadbare hemming, recounting how many times he'd had to have this cloak mended. It felt heavier than usual, but that could just be his own emotions sinking in his stomach coming through. Closing his eyes, he held out the cloak to Ral and brusquely muttered," Burn it."

"What?"

Jace opened his eyes to pained slits, glaring over to Ral and snapping," You're the storm mage, can you ignite it or not?"

Ral hesitantly took the offered garment and tossed it to the ground a good meter from the two of them. Quirking an eyebrow as he looked back to Jace for confirmation, he looked away quickly as he saw a glimmer of what might be tears. With a single bolt of electricity, the cloak was engulfed in flames and gave off a curling smoke.

"We couldn't have people seeing me in that cloak. It would make life very difficult for me in the future, er, past-future, to be known on these streets. It might even change the future of the Guildpact—I sure wouldn't be able to go around unnoticed if Niv Mizzet recognized me from the beginning."

Ral nodded in understanding, looking down to his own clothes with a bit of guilty relief. At least he could probably get by with a simple change in trousers to avoid standing out. He too would hate to part with his favorite ribboned tunic and vest. Jace putting out the small fire with a light mist caught Ral's attention, and he looked on the other, still with a cerulean vest and trousers, but lacking his signature look. He wore a thin, grey, long sleeve shirt under his banded vest, which did look much more guildless standard fair. "You look so different without it. I barely recognize you," Ral dumbly stated, astonished at just how less imposing and much younger Jace looked now.

"That was the idea," Jace mumbled with a shrug. "Why don't we find lodging for tonight?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

They made off into the streets, taking in the wonders of Ravnica's golden age and finding themselves easily lost on streets they knew so well and loved so much.


	5. Chapter 5

Later that morning, with the four coins they'd found to be old enough to use without Jace's worry, the only lodging they could afford that was available was a single room with one bed. Ral had been surprisingly nice and offered Jace the bed for the first day, claiming Jace seemed like he needed the sleep more since he started complaining first. Jace wasn't going to fight it.

"You okay?" Ral noticed yet again as Jace ran his hands over his arms, not quite like he was cold but similarly.

"Fine," Jace bit out. He was checking the bed for signs of infestation, which conveniently meant his back was turned to Ral. He didn't have the motivation left to mute his expression. As he said it though, he felt how the light sleeves danced over his arms and a vexed sigh left him. He smoothed his sleeves disgruntledly.

Satisfied nothing would be biting him, Jace straightened up and began undoing the buckles to his vest. It was a process, that was for sure, but he liked the reassuring pressure and guard it provided. With no cloak and no vest, it didn't matter he was still technically fully clothed; he felt nude.

Jace slid under the covers quickly, turning his back and trying to shut out the presence of another mind. He'd been hasty and now he was angry at himself. Upon running through many scenarios though, Jace had to admit it was the right choice. He knew he couldn't hold an illusion all day of not wearing his cloak, and that just by virtue of how many people packed Ravnica, a significant number of people were bound to see through it. Dimir was still hidden at this point, and would certainly keep tabs on newcomers. The young Jace that would find this plane so many decades out didn't need any help drawing attention to himself.

He heard Ral muttering arcane words, and rolled over so he could look curiously to the other. A ward, he was pretty sure. Ral was weaving a ward to alarm them should they be in danger. Sleepily from bed, Jace offered an assist, weaving his own enchantment to wake them should any intruder enter their space or target them with spells.

Once they were finished, Ral chuckled and thanked him. "My guards can be kind of lousy. Probably for the best we double up." 

That's what Jace had felt. No matter either mage's skill level, two wards were always better than one.

He watched Ral sit in the cheaply upholstered armchair, sat next to the room's oil lamp, uncomfortably trying to manage leaning back in a chair with his dampener, eventually giving up and leaning heavily on one arm. It occurred to Jace that Ral had to slump forward at every Guildmeet; he'd always just thought Ral was being too lazy to sit up straight.

Ral took the satin sash from his waist and tied it loosely around his eyes like a blindfold, grumbling something about the sun and how that was his next project. Jace was vaguely concerned.

If Ral was going to sleep too, then Jace didn't understand his insistence that he could take the bed. "You sure you don't want the bed?"

"I'm not much for sleeping on my stomach," Ral dismissed, patting his dampener with two short taps. "Just get some sleep, Beleren. We have a lot of math to run tonight."

Sending the concerned curiosity to the back of his mind, Jace nodded and let his eyes fall closed. Sleep was waiting for him, ready to embrace him and deliver him to much later in the day when the sun was already beginning to set.

~~  
~~

Ral shook his head and insisted," So we might be off by a few days. Future past us would understand the intrusion." They were arguing the importance of days being calculated for the energy input. Turned out that neither of them was actually positive of the date they'd left.

"I just don't think it's a good idea to run into yourself while timewalking. That seems like… one of those commonly accepted rules. Just like you don't cast wards with your arms crossed."

Ral laughed and said," You're just being superstitious, Beleren."

Jace grumbled. For such a man of logic, it wasn't fun to be accused of superstition, but he couldn't really argue against it. He was the very same man that had worn the same cloak for ten years straight because he thought it was his lucky cloak and that nothing had killed him yet, so it must be working.

"Okay, but say we do run into ourselves and they decide not to timewalk anymore. What happens to us?"

Ral rubbed his chin as he admitted," I- I don't know. I've never read of anyone stably timewalking before. There's rumors of various Izzet wizards and students achieving all sorts of time loops or going one way. Some curious mishaps for sure, but as far as I know for certain, we're the first ones."

Jace thought bitterly that if he stopped his past self in the future from timewalking, at least he'd still have his cloak. He pulled the thick wool blanket around himself tighter.

"Are you cold?"

"I'm fine."

"Mother of rains, Jace, stop just evading every question with 'fine'."

He was back to Jace, now, he noticed. It'd been a long while until Ral Zarek had conceded Jace's claim to Guildpact deserved respect, and while he was still generally rude to his plane's aribitor, he began to reflect a certain regard with the use of his title. Jace found he liked first name basis better.

"Stop asking so many questions then," he mumbled back, crumpling the page of aborted equations in front of him and getting to his feet too quickly. Before Ral could say anything, he jumped back into bed and covered his head with the blanket.

It was late in the night anyways, Jace thought. Perhaps he should sleep away the rest of the inky darkness so he could get to breakfast. His stomach gnawed at him, but there wasn't much but bars open at this time of night, and they had nothing in the way of food to prepare.

Ral continued working almost half an hour before deadpanning," If you're done stewing like a child, I could use a second pair of eyes."

The large bundle of quilt on the bed didn't reply, and Ral looked up curiously. There was no way Jace had actually fallen back asleep. They'd spent nearly ten hours sleeping before getting up to work on their project. Well, Jace had seemed to sleep soundly. Ral couldn't get comfortable enough to get more than a small nap in at a time.

"Jace," he called, letting his voice go as loud as he figured was acceptable at this hour of the night.

No reply.

With a small scowl, Ral glared and sent a small spark of electricity arcing to the quilt. Nothing big, just enough of a shock to startle him.

No reaction whatsoever.

With his heart skipping a beat, Ral got to his feet and checked the blanket. He ripped it away from the bed with no resistance and nothing laid beneath it. The quilt had just been fluffed up to appear like someone lay underneath. The Guildpact had duped him and ran off invisibly.

Ral quickly began to adjust the dials at his belt, feeling his heart begin to hammer and his hair starting to stand on end. He'd just lost the Living Guildpact seventy years in the past. He could be anywhere!

Starting for the door, then rushing back and hastily grabbing all their notes, Ral shakily ran downstairs to the main door. He was rushing through the common area so quickly, he almost missed the other person sitting by the fire.

"Ral?"

Head snapping to the source of his name, his brain had to sputter over what he saw for two seconds before he called out with relief," Jace!"

He took his hand away from the doorknob, arcing static crackling between his fingers and the metal until his hand was far enough away. "You _idiot_ ," he hissed as he stomped over towards Jace. He glared down at the Guildpact like he expected some kind of excuse, but when Jace started talking he interrupted," We've got to stick together. It will be damn hard to find each other if get lost."

"You're worried about me," Jace said, biting back a teasing grin. He couldn't help it. The thought that Ral Zarek, Izzet maze runner who'd on more than one occasion explicitly wished him dead, cared about him was hilarious.

"Of course I am! You're this world's future. I may not like you, but I can't exactly replace you."

A dark thought crossed both their minds. With timewalking, maybe he could.

Jace coughed nervously.

"It would lead to the Supreme Verdict. I'm not stupid," Ral mumbled.

Jace held out a hand requesting help up, and received quite the shock as Ral obliged. He had to restrain himself from peering into Ral's mind to see what it was like. Ral seemed to chock full energy all the time, and it always seemed anxious to escape. That had to be difficult to deal with.

Jace scratched his arm idly, keeping his gaze on the floor. "Sorry if I concerned you. I was just… cold."

Ral held up the sheaf of notes and offered," We could work down here."

Jace shook his head. "That's alright. The blanket will be enough." He trailed behind Ral as they headed back upstairs. Looking back momentarily, he winked the fake flames out of existence.


	6. Chapter 6

It was starting to look like their trip would take longer than they initially planned. They'd run out of old coins and Jace had to concede that the potential consequences of someone learning their coin was made of slightly more copper than standard minting allowed was negligible.

One major delay was the realization that one of the gauntlet's couplers had melted in their journey, and that refined enough mizzium wouldn't exist for another fifteen years. Ral was certain he could fix this though. They just had to get their hands on some raw mizzium, which wasn't exactly a simple matter outside of guild work. The Symposium was in another two weeks, which would be an easy source if they could get their names on the invited list. In the meantime, they still had a few equations to solidify.

"At least we've got all the time in the world," Jace mumbled as he crumpled the paper he'd been writing on.

"I think we need to take a break," Ral decided. "Plus, we need to blend in if we're not going to be gone in the next day or two. It's not normal for travelers to sequester themselves to their room for several days straight. Why don't we go see the market?"

"It would be a waste to travel all this way and not stop to smell the roses," Jace agreed. He hastily shuffled his papers together and reached out a hand for Ral's. They shared the small table that came in the room, and the only drawer was in the small nightstand.

After everything was put away, they locked up their room, both with a key and a few enchantments, and he faded out. It was midday and summer, making Ravnica quite hot, but hot Ravnica was still only warm when compared to many of the planes Jace had been. That didn't keep the chills that ran up his arms and down his back at bay; though, when he was willing to trek through an arid desert in his beloved cloak, that was hardly surprising.

They'd chosen lodging in the Tenth Precinct, knowing the streets and finding them the least changed. It also was to their benefit to occupy the district with the most guildless in the main hub of central Ravnica. To the majority of people here, Ral Zarek seemed like just another Izzet guildmage, common and forgettable. In the grounds of the Izzet League itself, he was a stranger who bore too familiar of clothes, a man who had too sophisticated of equipment not to be a higher up.

Jace and Ral passed through the streets leisurely. The new fashions stood out to them, significantly different from their day, and what passed for new and exciting inventions were patents of long ago.

A commotion up ahead caught their attention as they'd been checking out wares at a vendor's cart. Someone was barreling down the street in their direction, and as the sea of people finally parted for them, they didn't look too friendly.

Off to the side, Jace figured they were well out of the way, but he didn't account for the fact that they were right beside an intersection that lead to the Rakdos Carnarium—a good place to get lost in the crowds. Something heavy was thrust into Jace's arms, almost felling him with its awkward weight, and the running man was banking to his right and out of sight as he weaved through more people to escape.

Jace was too caught off guard as the wall of bodies parted for the man's chaser. "Caught you at last," she shouted as she slammed a heavy, blunt weapon into his temple. As his vision sizzled out of focus, all he could see was a blinding light filling the square. The smell of ozone filled his nostrils as he fell to the cobblestone.

~~  
~~

Something jolted Jace to semi-consciousness. A few somethings. He resisted being pulled out of sleep—that meant pain—but the stinging jolts began to win.

Jace's head throbbed violently as he woke up and tried to sit up. Key word, tried. Upon the wave of nausea that accompanied leaving a fully horizontal status, Jace laid back down and closed his eyes. The room spun.

"Jace?"

"Not so loud," Jace whined, bringing hands to his ears.

"Jace this is real bad. We don't have time for you to have a headache."

Opening his eyes blearily, Jace rolled his head to look at Ral. He quirked an eyebrow as he saw the other was stripped to nothing but trousers. Leaned up against a stone wall, doubled over in pain, Ral did not look so good.

This was enough to overcome the nausea and sit up. "Ral—what happened? Are you okay?"

"Probably some busted ribs. That's fine. But they took my gear," the voice held none of the composure it could muster when Ral was being his arrogant self. It held fear. A nervous twitch here and there would rack him, and it only seemed to leave him in more pain as he clutched at his ribs.

Jace's flesh prickled at the strong current tangible in the room, and he became aware his shirt and shoes were missing too. It took a lot of effort, but Jace eventually pushed himself to sitting on the edge of his steel bed. He uncomfortably crossed his arms over his chest. It was too late to raise an illusion now, Ral had to have seen. Jace bit his lip to keep from vocalizing his discomfort as a spark arced and hit him in the knee before traveling down his leg and flexing his foot.

"Why are we behind bars? They had to realize I wasn't really the thief."

Ral wrung his hands, not looking up to meet Jace's gaze. "I… I electrocuted her, Jace. The wojek who struck you. I saw you hit the ground, and I—I just _reacted_." Jace was such a goody two-shoes, or at least so it appeared to Ral. He was going to hear Ral's admission and hate him. 

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she took a lightning bolt to the face. She's fine— _Azor's blood_ , Jace. Of course she's not. They rushed her to a healer, but she's probably dead."

So they were being detained for manslaughter—or possibly even murder. That would explain the reinforced walls and the bolted bed he sat on. Looking around, he noticed a glimmer that suggested the walls and bars were enchanted to let no mana cross their barriers. He tried a simple pull of telekinesis at the empty chair that sat well out of reach from the bars, but he couldn't even touch it.

Boros cells were known for their efficiency. They were just lucky they weren't arrested by the Azorius; Ral would probably be in the process of being sentenced and executed.

"I'm sorry," Jace offered quietly. "I should have risen an illusion, or dropped the stolen thing o-or-"

Ral screwed his eyes shut as he ran his hands through his hair. "For the love of whatever gods you follow, shut up. I don't need your prattling to distract me."

Jace fell silent.

Ral looked up with a guilty wince. "That came out harsher than I meant. I'm just a little stressed."

He could tell. Ral hadn't been still for a moment since Jace had woken up, and the heavy smell of ozone was starting to make Jace feel ill. The exhaustion Ral was under was so painfully clear in the bags under his eyes and the sweat pasting hair to his forehead.

There was a lot to be stressed about, Jace acknowledged, even if one held onto the slim hope that the wojek hadn't met her end. His gear; his gauntlet and dampener assembly had been confiscated. Jace had only ever briefly seen Ral without the heavy gear. Only when he was completely calm, about to spend a large bout of time alone—or the time it had malfunctioned… Jace subconsciously rubbed at the arcing scar that ran down his right shoulder, its fractals branching in a beautifully dangerous pattern that reached to his elbow.

Not only was Ral's control of his magic a concern, but that gauntlet was their only way home. Their only way home to the time they _belonged_. That gauntlet was the only thing that could whisk them away from this time—if it still worked. How could they fix it though, if they were stuck in jail during the Mizzium Symposium? And how could they get out jail, even on the more lenient sentence of manslaughter, in just two weeks?

Jace ran both hands through his hair, letting out a sigh. His head pounded too much for this. He was passively concerned his jaw might be fractured. The whole world was painful and they were going to be stuck here forever more.

"We just need to think our way out of here," Jace said softly. "Work it out like a puzzle."

"Pretty sure every criminal thinks that, and you know the escape rate of Boros prisons, right?"

Jace didn't answer. He didn't need to. They both knew that they were going up against a guild that had a rate of less than one percent of their captives escape.

Another stray jolt hit his foot, and Jace hissed in pain. _That was it_. Cutting in as Ral was attempting to apologize, Jace asked," Can you create something flashy? Bright light, but little impact?"

Ral looked to him like he had a screw loose, and Jace mildly resented that. He was under none of the afflicted madness Innistrad had treated him to.

"You want a light show? Sure, I can do that."

"Then it's time you killed me," Jace said under breath so only Ral could hear even if someone was attending their cell nearby. "And lure a guard inside. I'll take it from there." Staggering forward so he could crumple to the center of the floor in plain sight of any gaurd that may come, Jace whispered," Now."

Throwing an illusion when one's head felt like it had been cracked in half was less than pleasant, but he'd managed through worse. The source of lightning that filled the cell was hard to make out, no centralized point or origin clear like the gauntlet usually facilitated, but he knew when the crackling bolts were intended to look like they struck their mark and Jace raised the illusion of a brutally singed man, a wafting smell of burnt meat curling both their stomachs as it sold too true to the actors themselves.

" _HELP_ ," Ral shrieked, scrabbling his way to the bars and grabbing hold though it singed his fingers with defensive magic. "Somebody help!"

His face pressed to the lattice of steel, he didn't give up his act. "Somebody get this man out of here. He needs a healer!" He bit back a grin as a guard answered his call and cautiously approached.

"You took my gear, I—I can't suppress my lightning without it," Ral began. "Please, you have to get this guy away from me." His begging sounded genuine and panicked, and perhaps that was because he wasn't exactly calm to begin with. He _was_ worried for Jace's wellbeing.

The guard's gaze flickered from the apparently unconscious—or worse—Jace and the madly sparking Ral. He was not prepared for such a situation, which shamed him since a wojek should be readied for anything, but he knew he couldn't leave the more innocent accomplice to die at the hands of the electromancer.

"To your feet," the guard ordered.

Ral tried to comply, walking himself to mostly vertical with the help of the bars.

"Keep your hands on the bars," the guard instructed as he grabbed the handcuffs at his belt.

Ral couldn't help himself as he flexed his fingers the farthest the could extend beyond the bars before crinkling back from the agonizing ward. He averted his gaze to the ground as he kept his hands curled tight against the steel. The guard put a cuff on either hand, the chain of the manacles stretched around the bars and taught.

Ral's stomach curled as he looked at the convincing illusion of Jace lying dead. He wondered if Jace was invisible elsewhere in the cell or not. No; he would have felt the change in the current if there was a moving body, Ral realized. He desperately wished he could breathe deeply to stave off the panic that was eating at him.

That could very well be Jace in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds, if he couldn't control himself. Without his breathing exercises, with this much pain, and with no luxury of familiarity, Ral only had a sliver of control he could grasp, his jaw beginning to ache from how he clamped his teeth to reign it all in.

He didn't have to look up to know when the guard officially entered the cell, he could feel the disturbance in the static filled air, and he didn't have to make eye contact to know that the guard's eyes now glowed blue as he saw the brilliant but small light escape Jace as the illusion fell away. 

Jace stood to his feet shakily, his head protesting such movement. The guard stood at his ready, and Jace had him hand over his keys. As he looked over to Ral, his brow rose in surprise. This whole time, Ral had had his back to the wall, but now it was exposed to Jace, and Jace found his eyes tracing the terrific scar that bore a passing resemblance to his own right arm's. It careened down Ral's back, starting at one shoulder and twisting its jagged fingers down to his opposite hip.

Embarrassed by his own staring, when he was so grateful for Ral's silence about his own scars, Jace quickly fumbled for the key to Ral's handcuffs and released him. He cried out at a burning shock from where his hand first met the cuffs, pulling away as they came loose. He'd become used to the tiny shocks, mere vibrations against his skin that tingled strangely, but he couldn't help reacting to the larger sparks.

"Come one, let's go," Jace said trying to put the key ring at his belt, only to realize sheepishly he didn't have one.

"No, I'm staying here," Ral countered, holding his left side as he trudged over to the bed.

"What? Ral, we need to get out of—"

" _Jace_. I am a liability right now," he interjected with a harsh hiss. "Until I get my dampener back, I can't leave this cell."

He held his head in his hands as his elbows perched on his knees. "These wards will protect everyone from me. Get out and take that metal-wearing-meatbag with you."

Jace shook his head and said," I can't leave you behind. We won't have enough time after finding our stuff to get out of here as it is. I'm not adding extra time to come dig your ass out of this cell to that."

"But I'm going to—" He couldn't finish his statement out loud. _Kill you_ , was all he could think. He would strike Jace down with lightning, _again_.

A strangely calm presence pressed itself against his mind, and Ral heard," _No, you won't._ "

Ral looked up, his stomach twisting as he saw the prone and burnt illusion in his mind despite what was before his eyes. " _Yes, I will._ "

The conviction behind that assertion left Jace's aching mind reeling, but he said softly," We can do this if we stick together." He held out a hand. "You said it yourself. Getting split up in another period would be bad."

Ral's callused hand tentatively took his, and Jace smiled reassuringly even as his opposite hand now burned with a fresh shock.

This was stupid, reckless, and a whole list of other adjectives often attached to Ral Zarek, but he he found as he gulped nervously that he dared to believe Jace.

Both to their feet, Ral leaning particularly hard on Jace, they followed the puppeted guard. Jace loved relying on this trick. There was something deeply gratifying about the guard leading him to what he wanted. Well… He loved it until it stopped working.

All it took was seeing his superior officer to jolt the man to his senses, his keen sense of duty too strong for Jace to entirely stifle in his current state. "Commander, these two—"

The guard looked behind him, but saw only air. His commander looked around, trusting her man enough to know that there was danger even if she couldn't see it. She readied her battle ax, and the guard reached for his sword, but it was over the second it started. Once she swung her ax through the air to where the guard had looked, lightning crackled across the ground, striking both Boros fighters.

"They're fine," Jace assured Ral as he felt the other begin to squeeze his hand too hard. "I can feel their minds. They're just unconscious."

Their minds were beginning to link, Ral found the connection stabilizing and Jace found he liked not being fried, and Ral could hear the truth in Jace's words. Relief filled him as he sighed and he nodded. With a shaky breath, Ral murmured," Good."

Jace had been able to pick out the way to the evidence room from the guard's brain, so he tugged on Ral's hand and led the way. They had to act fast. The Azorius were coming soon to collect the prisoners and evidence, and Jace seriously doubted they could fend off detainment spheres. Not for long with as depleted of mana he was. 

They found the room soon enough, and Ral beelined for the golden colored equipment that he so sorely missed.

"You might want to put on your shirt first," Jace reminded as he saw the other quickly buckling his harness on.

Ral didn't slow down, only explaining," Can't wear my Izzet colors where we're going."

"What?"

"Izzet and Selesnya were… having conflicting views at this time. The Boros have to realize I'm Izzet. The Conclave would be the last place they'd check for me."

Jace thought of their conversation back when they were scouting for who would turn out to be Gideon. Ral really had memorized the histories of the guilds. Several times over the last few days, Jace had been impressed by Ral's impeccable talent of pulling forth in his mind a small, insignificant fact that turned out to be exactly what they needed to know. Like the many crests of the Izzet and when they lined up the Symposium dates. Ral really was Ravnican to the core, and it left Jace doubting if he himself could claim the same.

He set to getting his grey shirt on and swiftly buckling all the belts of his vest, a profound comfort washing over him as he did so. Ral coughed and asked," How do you breathe in that thing?" 

Right, they were slightly bound to feel each other's senses. That's why his shoulder's suddenly felt so weighed down. With a small frown as he loosened the belts for Ral's convenience of breathing, he asked," How do you walk around with that thing strapped to your hip all day long?"

"Have to."

Jace looked up with mild surprise; he hadn't been expecting such a straightforward, honest answer.

"It makes scars hurt less," Jace answered equally quietly.

Twisting the last cord in place, Ral gritted out," Let's go, they're probably realizing where we are by now."

Jace nodded curtly and began leading them out after grabbing the last of their stuff. Ral looked a little ridiculous with his leather and mizzium harness and gear with no shirt underneath, but it was better than being seen for Izzet immediately. Ral was thinking about it too, the cold mizzium not warming up fast enough against his skin. Maybe he could pass off as guildless. There were a few unaligned artifact venders that walked the streets of Ravnica. Few, but enough.

"You don't want to be mistaken for a guildless seller of artifacts," Jace said softly as he lead them down the hall. He didn't spare Ral a glance, but he could feel the offended glare being aimed his way.

"Don't read my thoughts when they have nothing to do with you."

Jace sourly broke their connection, reasoning that Ral didn't need his support now that he had his dampener. Ral immediately sparked, his hand fumbling at the dials frantically, and he swore," Krokt, Jace. A little warning next time!"

"Sorry, I—" His apology was put on hold as a large minotaur turned the corner. These halls had been made to accommodate its larger guildmages, but the minotaur's horns still came close to brushing either side of the hallway. 

He let out a roar as he immediately began charging them, no need to brandish a weapon as he lowered his head. Jace rose one hand, it glowing with intensity as he muttered quickly.

The minotaur collapsed just in front of them, loud snores hurting Jace's head. He wiped at his nose as something warm began to trickle onto his upper lip.

Jace swayed, the last spell having drained even more than he figured it would. Such swaying was not helpful for Ral, who had taken back to leaning on him. "Jace, are you going to be okay?"

"Yes," Jace said, and was lying.

His head pulsed violently, and his legs began to wobble. Vision going black, he crumpled to his knees.


	7. Chapter 7

He woke up, head cradled in a warm lap. "Where are we going?" He asked softly, blinking his eyes and trying to make sense of what he saw. It looked like Ral was sitting up, looking down at him, and now dressed in a typically guildless shirt.

"The Conclave, honey."

" _Honey?_ "

" _We're married now. Everything's fine._ "

" _Why are we married?_ " A bump in the road—they must be in a carriage—rattled him and he found that every muscle in his body ached. " _Everything's not fine. How did we get out?_ "

" _Ever have a lab in school where you get to play with the frog and electricity? Make it walk across the table?_ "

" _I don't even know if I've been to school_ ," Jace tiredly snapped back. He'd obviously received an education, but did his home plane have public schooling? Who knew. " _Wait—_ "

"I'm a genius," Ral said with a smug smile. His voice sounded tinny to Jace, but he ignored it.

"You're a sadist," Jace groaned, now understanding why all of his muscles felt like they'd stretched in the wrong ways.

" _Well I'm not exactly walking well on my own. How would you expect me to carry you?_ "

To be completely fair, Jace doubted he could carry Ral even at his best. " _I suppose that's better than than being incarcerated again._ "

Ral gave him a winning smile, and Jace rolled his eyes. He tried to sit up, and Ral assisted, but he shortly fell back to Ral's lap as the pain in his skull spiked. "I don't feel well," he said softly, looking up to Ral with swimming vision.

"Yeah, we're going to have to do something about that."

Jace contented himself to close his eyes and let the carriage lull him into an almost dreaming state. He felt the seats beneath him with his hands, marveling at the velvet. No wonder the ride was so smooth aside from the one startling bump. They must be taking an Orzhov carriage.

" _So why exactly are we married?_ " Jace flinched at the static that crawled over his skin in response to him asking the question.

" _The driver asked how we knew each other, and I panicked. I mean, 'lab partners' sounded too Izzet-y, and I couldn't really go and say you were the Guildpact, now could I—_ "

" _So you married us? I hope the vows were beautiful. I really am my most poetic while I'm unconscious._ "

"You're certainly less annoying," Ral gritted out, but it was playful. His voice took a concerned hitch as he said," Maybe we should be having a conversation with real words."

"Why?" But as Jace asked it, he felt his nose begin to bleed. One ear grew warm, and he confusedly reached to it, his fingers coming back red.

Ral shouted to the front," Hey, remember the part where I said your pay doubled if you could get us there in twenty minutes?"

Ral was worried—beyond worried. It was impossible to miss, and Jace grew a little concerned as he realized it was about him. It was just a little blood… What was wrong with a little—Jace belatedly realized people weren't supposed to suddenly start bleeding, especially from their nose and ears. Something had to be really wrong.

What felt like an eternity, but was probably only ten minutes or so, had them arriving at the edge of inner city Selesnya territory and coming to a stop. "What district?"

"Tandris," Jace hazily answered, only kind of realizing the multitude of problems with his answer. He looked to Ral, face pale and sweaty. "I need to see Emmara Tandris."

"We don't even know if—"

"The Tandris estate will take another five minutes—We made it to the edge of the Conclave in eighteen minutes, by the way," came back a polite, but irked, voice from the other side of the screen.

The carriage began to move again, no lurch to the elegance that Orzhov offered, and Jace honestly found himself relieved despite knowing the heavy toll this would take on their wallet.

"We usually provide thrulls to carry luggage, but would you like to use one to carry your husband?"

Ral called back," How much?" He laughed as Jace swatted his thigh lightly.

"Only a single zino."

Ral sucked in air through his teeth. This venture was going to drain a fourth of their money. With a sigh and ruffle of his hair, he responded," Yeah, a thrull would be helpful." He regretted his deep sigh as his ribs stabbed at his insides.

"I'm sorry."

Ral looked down with a furrowed brow and said," You've got nothing to apologize for. Just try not to die on me, okay?" He had to shift Jace over a little to get better access to the dials at his belt. Mother of Rains, he was not going to add electrocution to Jace's ailments—some of his shocks earlier came close enough—Ral screwed his eyes shut and cursed under his breath. How could he let all of this happen? How could he get the Living Guildpact entangled in this mess and endanger his own plane?

Jace hummed back an affirmative and fell back into his dreamy state until they came to a stop again. When it did, he was too out cold to bother waking again.

The thrull was large and obviously built with the task of heavy lifting in mind. It was able to pick up Jace in one hand, cradling him to its broad chest. Ral was surprised such a large creature could fit in the trunk of the dainty carriage they rode on.

The driver held out an expecting hand, and Ral handed over nine zinos for what should have been four tops. He gave the mage a dirty look, though it wasn't like he should have expected anything different. This was more welcome than facing Emmara Tandris. If Emmara Tandris existed yet.

He didn't even know her. Not really. Jace was the idiot who brought up going to Tandris' estate, and he wasn't even conscious to deal with the consequences. 

Ral shoved his tattooed hand in his pocket, trying to play it cool. He hated meeting new people, and meeting people he knew in the future just might be worse. Walking beside the thrull was nerve wracking—What kind of door to door parishioner was whoever answered the door going to think he was?

The thrull came to a stop, and Ral realized that was because he'd actually reached the door. With a long suffering sigh he pulled the cord of the bell beside the door, only moderately surprised when it ushered a chorus of birds to sing. The elves of Selesnya were _weird_.

The door opened and Ral looked in curiously until he realized that the one who answered the door was just really short. Child sized. "You got parents around?"

She quirked an eyebrow and brushed her long, blonde hair behind her slender, elven ear. "No," she flippantly answered.

Ral squinted at the eff and asked," Aren't you a little young to be left alone?"

"I'm thirty-seven," she retorted with a haughty scoff.

"Really? Well, um, you wouldn't happen to be Ms Tandris, would you?"

The elf scrutinized the human before her. She looked to the human in the thrull's arms. He didn't look so good. "Why would two humans and a thrull being looking for Ms Tandris? She doesn't see eye to eye with the Orzhova."

"We are _not_ some money grubbing sleezeballs that—Oh, this lug is just hired muscle to get _this idiot_ to a healer," Ral said, throwing the back of his hand into the bicep of the thrull. He immediately regretted it, the deathly chill of the thrull's reanimated flesh crawling down his arm.

"Why would you come here?"

Baby Emmara asked some good questions that Ral found hard to answer. He looked to Jace, wishing once again that the other could deal with this situation he got in them. He had to tiptoe around carefully, or she might know one of them in the future.

"Heard there was a great healer here, and uh, my friend's in dire straits."

Emmara looked to Jace with interest, but a noticeable lack of concern. It was weird to see Emmara so unconcerned for him, even if she did look like she was twelve. "What's wrong with him?"

"Well, what isn't—but, well, his ears are bleeding and he goes unconscious."

Ral felt everything was going so fast. Was Emmara always so inquisitive? Or was this just a trait that had slowly died out by the time that he knew her? He supposed he never paid enough attention at Guildmeets, or maybe he'd better know how to talk to her if he did.

"My father isn't around, but I've been studying healing for a while now," Emmara said thoughtfully, tapping a finger to her lips. "Emmara," she finally introduced, holding out a hand like she was emulating a gesture she didn't really understand.

With a smug quirk of the lip, Ral forwent the handshake and bowed in proper Selesnyan style. "Mal," he offered. "And my friend's name is… Breyan."

Emmara hesitated, then returned the bow. "When you said you weren't Orzhov, I figured guildless."

Ral had to bite his tongue to keep from proudly proclaiming Izzet. Truth was, as much as he hated diplomacy, he was good at it. He had every guild's history memorized. Who fought who when, the common rites seen to by the guild's elite, how to greet and thank guildmages properly… Ral Zarek was a fast study, and it had taken him years, but he knew it all. "Studying manners is always a good use of one's time," he dismissed easily.

"Then you already knew that I would take you in," she said with a knowing smile. "Please, come in, Mal. We can have your friend put in the guest room."

Ral bowed, the subtle difference of feet placement for thanks verses greeting remembered, and said," We really appreciate it."

Emmara took in the slight wince he gave as he bowed and commented," Your ribs are broken."

Damn, she _was_ a gifted healer. Only a child and she could tell by just a look that his ribs were angry at him. Maybe Jace had been right to bring them to her despite the lunacy of seeking someone they knew seventy years from now.

"I'll start on his injuries, then see to yours. It will probably take me a few days to get both of you healed up. I'm only a novice."

Ral had a response, but it fell away as he entered her strange excuse for a home. Her house wasn't particularly large, but it seemed massive and empty, having no walls of any sort and only two stories tall. Beautiful staircases made of vines holding together pieces of cobbled together marble lead to the second story, and Ral noticed there were some interesting pathways to some kind of basement. The most gorgeous and strange part was the elemental help that seemed to keep everything orderly, and Ral found himself curious. Were they smarter than weirds? Or would he just be disappointed with them once he interacted with them?

The only time that he got to know Emmara's elementals from was before and during the Implicit Maze, and then the lumbering nature of elementals was easy to dismiss because of their great size. These small elementals, human sized—or did she think of them as elf sized—and mouse sized alike were so nimble.

It was only once he had made his way into the heart of the home that he realized this was a living tree that had just been perfectly sung into the shape a house. The foliage outside from all the surrounding trees made for such a dense canopy that he hadn't been able to see the top of her house. 

She pointed to a rolled out bed that Jace could use, but the thrull waited for Ral's command. When he also pointed to it, the thrull gingerly placed Jace's inert form down and then did a clumsy bow to Ral and headed back out. Ral caught Emmara's leer at the thing and tried to apologize," Sorry for bringing black magic into your home."

"It's okay. Not everyone is skilled enough to make their own helpers," she offered with a boastful smile.

Ral grumbled as he began equalizing his dampener to compensate for the sudden irritation. He couldn't help but smirk as well.

Emmara set to work rather quickly once the thrull was gone. Kneeling beside Jace, she walked her hands across his body, a slow look of horror coming to her face. "He's been..."

"Through a lot," Ral finished. "I tried to get him here as soon as possible. Will he be okay?"

"Only time will tell. Every muscle is strained, especially his heart, and he has a lot of head trauma," she said gravely. All of her flippancy was gone, replaced with grim seriousness. She had a patient now, one who was perhaps injured beyond her capabilities to heal. She had to try though, had to at least do beginning care. Head trauma wasn't something that could wait. It would have been better had he been able to be seen earlier.

Turning her head to the other who stood there awkwardly, she noticed he wore a guilty and worried expression. His hand was glued to his ribs and keeping pressure, but the pain he was obviously in was largely overshadowed by his concern for the unconscious man she was tending to. With the multitude of electrical burns she would be treating and the sparks that traveled across his skin, she wondered if the storm mage committed friendly fire or if they'd fought together against another electromancer.

"You should see to getting some rest," she said," You can take a bed upstairs." An elemental stepped close to Ral, readying to lead the way.

"Can I stay with him?"

"I need to work, and it will be long and tedious."

"I'll be quiet," Ral promised. As her gaze continued to rest on him unconvinced, he added weakly, "He's my husband. I want to see that he's okay."

She nodded softly. "You may sit nearby, but no holding his hand. He doesn't need any more errant currents of electricity."

Ral's throat got tight, making it hard to speak as he tried to thank her before taking a seat near the wall. He watched curiously as she sat on her feet and rested Jace's head on her knees, taking his head in either hand. A soft light, like evening sunlight diffused through a lace curtain, framed his face as she began her healing.

A few elementals brought her things like washcloths and water to clean his face, blankets to cover his shivering frame, and tea for her and Ral. He accepted the tea, though it didn't really smell that appetizing to him right now, and sipped softly. He felt better as he drank it, the pain of his ribs numbing in his mind.

"So you can afford an Orzhov carriage, but you can't afford a proper healer?" She asked after many minutes of silence. 

Ral was so surprised she'd spoken that he almost asked her to repeat herself. "Are you telling me you're not a proper healer?"

She looked over to him, a wry smile on her face as she pointed out," I don't exactly have a sign on my porch offering my services."

"Well, we're kind of on the run."

"Ah, that explains the Orzhov coach." One of the main reasons to take an Orzhov ride was because payment also covered their silence. 

"Are you going to kick us out?"

"That would be rather irresponsible of me. Your husband is dying in my lap."

"Breyan," Ral reminded, more for his sake than hers. His voice was a little thinner than usual as he asked," So he's really not doing well?"

"He's certainly not doing great, but I think I can take care of this."

Ral sighed with relief, his breath hitching as he was reminded why he shouldn't breathe too deeply. The tea could only alleviate so much pain.

More silence consumed them as she refocused her efforts on his chest. Jace was obviously in pain, and it only worsened as she worked, but that was to be expected with such severe injuries. Two elementals came up to Emmara, each holding a tub of some kind of ointment. She began to wash her hands and then scoop ointment in either hand.

Looking over her shoulder to Ral, she asked," Could you undress him for me please? Just to his undergarments."

Ral blanched, then remembered he was supposed to be married to this man. "Uh, right, yeah, of course. I can do that," he said as collectedly as possible, which was to say, with no chill at all.

She giggled. "I'll be professional about it. I'm not interested in humans anyways."

Kind of relieved she took his nervousness as jealousy and not embarrassment, Ral gave her a thumbs up. Then with an odd glance towards her, he asked," Are you even old enough to have thoughts about men like that?"

"Are _you_?"

"I'm thirty-eight," he said sheepishly as he realized he only had a year on her.

"So much more mature, you're right," she said flippantly with a mock reverent bow of her head.

Ral gave her a friendly glare, thinking that if this was what Emmara was really like under all her obligation to her guild that maybe he should make an attempt to get to know her. He crawled over to Jace on his knees, biting his lip nervously and hoping he wasn't blushing too much. It was just for medical reasons, it meant nothing, he told himself, but he couldn't help but think about how equally passionate about solving riddles Jace was, how wry his humor could be, how hard he'd worked to calm Ral down and—

Ral pushed everything out of his mind as he started at the first buckle on Jace’s damn vest. As his fingers fumbled with the ridiculous number of belts, he checked," I can move his neck and stuff, right?"

She hummed in affirmation.

Ral pulled Jace to sitting up, leaning him against his chest as he worked the vest off, then pulling off the grey shirt. Emmara boggled at the reveal. Had he not been steeling himself, Ral might have as well. He gingerly rested Jace back down, brushing his bangs out of his eyes.

The briefest prodding at his mind startled Ral, but Jace's eyes flickered open to half open slits and the look of recognition ended the mental touch of perusal. He faded back to unconsciousness before Ral could say anything, vocal or otherwise.

Emmara began to rub ointment into some of the burns as Ral began to take off Jace's boots. "How did he get all these scars?" Her voice was small.

"I don't know," Ral admitted," He's never told me."

He scuffled up to Jace's waist again and began to remove his trousers, trying hard to peel the burned fabric gingerly from the sticky skin beneath. The multitude of painful looking fresh burns on his thighs made Ral's stomach curl. It had been the only way to get Jace out of the prison, holding him upright and zapping either leg into motion until he reached the street and Ral could hail the very first coach he saw. Still, when looking at all the twisting burn scars that pulled Jace's skin and thinking about the crisscrossing white lines that were drawn all over his back, Ral thought that he didn't need a single injury more for the rest of his life.

Emmara quietly medicated and wrapped every open injury. She was shaking, Ral noticed, and her hair clung to her damp face. When she finished wrapping his foot, which only had four toes she noted, she looked up to Ral and said with a quivering voice," I'm sorry. I can't do anymore today."

"You look like you should sleep for five days straight," he said, dismissing her apology with a wave of his hand. It wasn't his first time with broken ribs, he could deal with a little natural healing as they'd obviously not punctured anything yet.

She smiled thinly and said," I just might."

"Really, Breyan and I are so grateful," Ral said, feeling an unusual need to thank her. It wasn't like him to be plentiful with his thanks. Was it because of just how much they were imposing and how much guilt already weighed him down more than his gear ever could?

She shook her head. "I'm happy to help those in need." She looked to her closest elemental for a hand up as she got to her feet. She sunk closer to it and let it support her as her legs shook slightly. "Dinner?"

"I couldn't," Ral turned down. "You've already done so much for us."

"My elementals can handle it. It's really no problem."

Ral was rather hungry, and if it wasn't too much of an inconvenience... "Alright," he said, trying to get to his feet and finding himself in too much pain to do so. As silly as it might sound, undressing Jace had put a lot of strain on his abdomen, and his ribs flared with more pain than they had all day.

"You shouldn't be lifting anything heavy," she chastised.

He removed the gauntlet because all it really did for him was focus his energy and he desperately hoped he wouldn't need to fight anytime soon. The other two pieces stayed though. "Can't do without it," he said, sitting back down as he gave up on the prospect of standing. His dampener met the floor with a soft thud and he sighed. Having to explain to person after person that he couldn't just make do without his gear was frustrating.

She didn't comment any further, and simply said," I'll have dinner brought to you."

It was a light meal of cut up fruits and vegetables with soft pastries. She ate with Ral, and had a cup of soup to feed to Jace if he could manage wakefulness for more than half a minute. Ral found it to be one of the most awkwardly quiet meals he'd ever eaten. Emmara was obviously so tired she just wanted to eat and go to sleep; she didn't have the energy to carry a conversation.

When an elemental brought a second blanket to Ral, and he realized she meant for him to sleep next to Jace, he stuttered out," Actually could I sleep in the basement?"

"I just figured—"

"Oh, yeah, no, that'd be great. But..." He broke off his sentence in surprise, eyeing the elemental closest to him with apprehension.

Many vines started curling around him loosely, spreading out the pressure as the elemental picked him up and began to walk to the nearest staircase downstairs. A second elemental joined them holding a bedroll.

The basement was wondrous; the walls were thickly twined roots and the floor was smooth marbles of various colors assembled like a stained glass window, the jagged pieces lined up so perfectly that no gaps existed.

The bedroll was laid out and Ral upon it. Sitting, he began to undo the buckles of his harness, hands moving quickly in the well practiced routine. An elemental helped him set his dampener to the side, and Ral stretched the best he could with his ribs as they were. His shoulders were so tense and sore from having almost no relief over the last few days. Finally. He was completely alone and could actually get a good night's rest without worry of killing his roommate by accident.

The elementals left him to privacy once he grabbed the blanket and slowly lowered himself to laying down. He was in quite a bit of pain, but he still slept better than he had in over a week.


	8. Chapter 8

"Your girlfriend's a real bitch," Ral whispered as he woke Jace. Emmara had tasked him with seeing to it that Jace got something to eat.

Jace tumbled into the waking world, stumbling over his words as he tried to insist, _she's not my girlfriend_ , and _watch how you talk about Emmara_ at the same time. It came out as," Watch how you talk about not my girlfrie—"

He stopped and sighed, then tried again more slowly. "Emmara's not my girlfriend, and you watch your tongue. She's a close friend."

"It was compliment! She's awesome."

Ral helped Jace sit up, grinning at the rotten glare Jace was still sending his way. His own injuries were rather simple work after Emmara had dealt with Jace's, and he was pretty much all healed up. It was just Jace's delicate head injury that had her tiptoeing and using days of slow healing.

"How long have we been here?" Jace looked around, not recognizing the home, but recognizing the style. It was much like Emmara's home had been like in Ovitzia, if not quite as lavish and outlandish. He'd instantly realized where they were, though he didn't actually know how they got here or why they would choose it.

"You ask that every time," Ral said with a dramatic sigh and roll of the eyes. "We've been here four days now, the Symposium's in just over a week.

"I ask…?" Jace exhaled as he realized his head felt like it had been crushed. He probably was dealing with the effects of a concussion. Trying to think back, the last thing he could remember was sitting by the fire at the inn.

"May I…?" He drifted off as he remembered how little Ral cared for his mind magic and its invasion of privacy.

Ral huffed and nodded. Jace always asked that too. "Go ahead. Dig back as far as you gotta."

"Thanks," Jace said as he tentatively reached out to Ral's mind. At the first touch of discomfort Jace retreated back to his mind and insisted," You don't have to."

"I know. I just know how you'll respond to what you see and I guess it doesn't get easier each time."

"Why don't…" Jace decided that with the reluctance he'd encountered, maybe mind magic wasn't the way to go. "Why don't you just tell me?"

This was the first time Jace had completely backed off, and Ral wondered what was actually different. He was always uncomfortable with Jace's searching through his mind, though he realized he became more so each time Jace did it and reaffirmed what he was worried of. 

Jace could recount the emotional flavor of each and every memory. He would know how Ral really felt about him. Was the threshold just too great now, his apprehension of Jace's reaction had grown too great to hide?

"I mean, not too much to say. We were in the market, you got framed for theft and we got arrested by the Boros, escaped jail after some brutal injuries and you had some kind of head thing go wrong, came here because you hazily requested for Emmara in the coach, and she's been healing you up. Oh, and we're married now."

"We're fugiti—why are we married?"

"Not so loud," Ral hissed with a finger to his lips. "I—I don't really have a good answer. I was asked how we knew each other and I panicked. It was the best answer I could come up with."

Jace laughed, not a stranger to faking relationships to pass off as normal. He and Kallist had frequently pulled off being brothers. 

Ral smiled thinly, kind of relieved that Jace took the marriage thing well. They had more important things to discuss though. "Are you feeling better? We need to start figuring out how we're going to get in the Mizzium Symposium."

They could get access to mizzium other ways, the simplest being devoting only ten years of one's life to becoming a fully-fledged guildmage.

"Yeah," Jace answered, rubbing his head idly and trying to will away the lingering pain.

"I don't suppose you have an idea of how to get in," Ral asked, mirroring the gesture as he ran his hand through his hair restlessly. This was the most coherent Jace had been thus far, and they were running out of time. They needed to plan.

"Not really. I mean, being on the run from the Boros Legion only makes things harder."

"Well, we're on the run from the Legion _and_ the Azorius. They'd had Azorius coming over to assess our sentences."

Jace sighed and said," Great. Being on the run from the Azorius is just a fun time all around." He was really sick of being at odds with the law, especially now that he _was_ the law. He wondered idly, not for the first time, how that worked, if there were two Guildpacts currently existing in the same place and time. 

A slight chill from an open window ran down Jace's back and reminded him of his mostly nude state. His eyes dropped awkwardly to his hands in his lap. A warm, wool blanket covered his legs, but his arms, chest, and back alone had more than enough scars to fill a lifetime, and Ral had to have been curious once they stopped being in mortal danger.

"I miss my cloak," Jace whispered out of the blue, a sinking clutch of longing twisting around his heart. 

"I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I left my Izzet duds behind."

The ability to commiserate about lost clothing was a minor relief from his pain, but only a little. He played with a bandage on his hand, wondering how he got the injury there. Jace wondered how long it would be before Ral asked about his scars, or if he already had. A spike of guilt flushed his cheeks as he momentarily thought he should have just pressed on and took the offered memories.

"Hey," he began, not looking up from the fraying bandage.

"Yeah?"

"The discomfort I found in your mind… It seemed resigned, like you knew what was coming next and you didn't like it." Nothing was said in response, and Jace looked up to confirm there was a grim expression on Ral's face. It had felt borderline resentful, as if Ral was putting up with something he couldn't stop and had been doing so for a while. Probably three or four days.

Jace tried to figure out how to put what he wanted to say into words, knowing just how he would have conveyed it mentally, but aware that was the worst place to have this conversation. "I've asked before, and you've let me, but not wanted to… and I didn't stop, did I?"

Ral chewed his lip, then sighed and lightly answered," No." Averting his eyes, he clarified," No you didn't stop. But I did say you could."

Jace's teeth clenched as his heart skipped a beat painfully. He hated himself. Just like he found he did for every decision he'd ever made that he couldn't remember. So much for turning a new leaf; it looked like he'd just take what he wanted with no regard.

Before Jace could say anything, he heard Emmara call from upstairs," Make yourselves decent, you two, I'm coming down in a minute."

Jace blushed, the humour of their fake marriage not reaching him now like it had before. "I'm sorry, Ral—"

"Mal," he corrected quietly. A smirk broke through the previously upset expression as he informed Jace," Breyan and Mal Hildact."

"Ild-act," he echoed slowly, with narrowed eyes. "You are never naming us again," Jace whispered, but then paused and with a little fuller of a voice, continued," I'm sorry, Mal. I should have noticed. I…"

"We shouldn't be discussing your powers when she comes down."

That was true, but it wasn't like it would really hold any consequence. He was reluctant to do it, but he would have to once again erase Emmara's memories. With downturned lips, Jace shared with Ral," It doesn't actually matter what we're discussing."

"Oh." He caught Jace's drift with ease.

"She can't see these scars," Jace explained, fingers tracing the thick scar that tore through his left shoulder. "She'll be healing these very scars in sixty-five years or so. I know that's a long time to expect someone to remember something, but I can't take chances."

Emmara began to descend a nearby staircase, and Jace looked to her with wonder. She looked so young. This couldn't be the same mature adult he came to know when he was but a teenager. The elf before him looked younger than even he had when he met her. "Do you remember me today?" she asked, voice bright with care and hope.

With a quick look to Ral, Jace stumbled over," My… husband just filled me in. Nice to make your acquaintance, Emmara." He bowed his head politely.

"I think after today's treatment, I should be able to clear up the lasting effects. The weapon that hit you left a pretty tenacious enchantment, but I've been dissolving it slowly."

That explained why things were so slow going. Enchantments were not her forte. Elementals; Healing—those were things that she was prodigal at. She was probably one of the best mages on this plane when it came to those fields. She could weave enchantments well enough, and she could tear them apart, but it had been an area of magic that didn't come easily to her, and she was what, like ten?

Jace wished a thousand times over that he didn't have to erase his friend's memories and that they had the time to get to know her, but he would have to settle for short conversation. "How long have you been studying healing? From the sounds of it, I was rather injured when I came here."

"Well, I started studying when I was twenty," she said," But dad doesn't know that."

A look of urgency lit up her eyes, and Jace assured her," We would never dream of telling him."

Learning healing too early could be dangerous, especially without a tutor, but it seemed to come to Emmara naturally. He guessed now he knew just how naturally. Self taught, and she was nursing burned bodies and injured heads back to health.

They talked lightly as she set to work, finishing the healing of the electrical burns and letting him know that he could remove the bandages and clean off the ointment later tonight. Talking ceased as she finished the light injuries. His head was a separate obstacle, and he could feel in her mind how hard she was working to concentrate through her exhaustion to unravel the last of the enchantment that had suppressed his every draw of mana and made it so he had to pull harder than he ever should have for such simple skills. 

A faint recall of pushing through pain to send a minotaur to sleep left an impression on him, and he had to restrain himself from immediately fact checking with Ral. It didn't truly matter what she learned, but he wanted to keep how much he had to erase to a minimum. Also, he didn't want to distract her when she was already working so hard to maintain the necessary concentration.

She backed away, wiping her brow and sighing. "I think that's the best I can do."

"We really appreciate it," Jace offered. "Thank you for all that you've done. I know we must have been an imposition." 

"Not too bad. It was good practice. I think I might go into healing when I grow up."

"You definitely should," Ral agreed, ignoring the elbow to the side he got from Jace. It wasn't like he was telling her she _would_ , or anything.

"We should be on our way, we've already stayed so long. Could we repay your kindness in anyway?" He got to his feet, relying on Ral for balance.

"No need," she dismissed with a collected smile. She followed suit, head at their chest height. "It's my pleasure to give my help where it's needed."

"Well, we definitely needed it. Thank you," Ral offered with a casual shrug. Then, thinking back to his first day here, he bowed properly. 

They were given time to get ready to leave, Jace being more than ready to be fully clothed again, despite it feeling like a cheap approximation with no heavy cloak. Ral took the time to inspect his gear and assure himself everything was running smoothly aside from the timewalking additions. Then, it was time to go.

She showed them to the front door, and Jace looked to his feet guiltily as he acknowledged now was the time. He took a step closer to her, placing a hand on her head and drawing forth mana as he muttered softly.

"What—?!" Her sudden cry died on her lips as her eyes glowed blue with Jace's. He took their appearances from her, their names—fake as they were—and personalities, and he took their situation and injuries. All that remained of these four days was that she helped two injured souls. The rest would fill itself in as the brain was wont to do.

He left the satisfaction of pushing herself past what she knew she could handle. He left the experience and strain that made the end result worth the pride that had filled her. He left the joy that blossomed in her heart as she thought she was really making a difference, really helping people. He left what she had learned about herself, both in ability and personality, but he took Ral and himself from her. She would have no recollection it was them who she had helped. Even if she were to bump into on the street tomorrow, she would be none the wiser.

He left her there to sort her thoughts, her brain rushing to order the chaos he had left.

"Let's go," he said solemnly, hating the cautious way Ral now looked to him.

When it became apparent Ral wouldn't take lead, Jace walked passed him and into the streets of the Conclave's capital.


	9. Chapter 9

They didn't talk much during their trip through Selesnya territory. They didn't really speak much during their walking through the Tenth Precinct either. It was a couple hours of walking, but they had both wordlessly decided they could use the time to clear some thoughts.

Jace had weaved an enchantment to deter people from looking and made Ral's equipment particularly difficult to see.

They needed to return to the inn. They had left their notes there, and those couldn't be left behind. Jace hoped his enchantment held up, that no one had taken them. If they were discarded and burned, so be it, but if someone was running around with speculative notes on timewalking, that could be quite bad.

Every Boros Wojek and Azorius Arrester made Jace's skin crawl, but so long as they played it cool, he hoped they could squeak by without being noticed. It was high noon and a rather crime free part of the district, the guards weren't looking hard.

They passed an Orzhov church when Jace got an idea. The Orzhov were known for their immense talent at bribing and taking bribes. If anyone could suddenly find themselves invited to an event, it would be one of the Orzhov clergy. They had enough money to spread around that they could grease just about any hand, even that of the Izzet elite. They just had to come up with something to make it worth the time of some Orzhov priest.

"I'm going to attend church tomorrow," he announced as he came to a slow stop.

Ral looked to him like he was crazy. Everyone knew attending Orzhova church was the surest way to burn through one's wallet. "Why in the 'verse would you do that?"

" _I'm going to scout for a clergy member that I can convince to bribe our way into the Symposium_ ," he answered back mentally. That was a secret worth extra hiding even with their charms up.

A prickle of unease crawled through Jace's mind and he located it easily back to Ral's. "Sorry. I should have asked. I'm going to…" He didn't finish the thought as he frowned and started walking briskly. Ral lagged behind, having to work hard to keep up with how much weight he carried.

"Wait, Ja—Breyan!"

Jace didn't slow down, which was probably one his less smart decisions when trying to avoid the guard's attention. He found he didn't much care, though he used it as an excuse to dismiss Ral. "We don't want to draw attention. This isn't the place to have an argument."

"I don't want to argue," Ral insisted, having to throw his voice to reach the other. "But I would like to talk—Hells, Jace. Slow down."

Jace didn't, not even when he felt the presence of Ral's mind fall behind and slowly stop trying to keep up. "That was childish," he mumbled to himself under his breath, running a hand through his hair and looking back to the sea of people he lost the other in. 

It began to rain.

Jace looked up to the the sky that had turned too dark too quickly. If he had a zino for every time he wished he had his cloak, he would have been rich in present day Ravnica already. Drawing his arms close to his body as he began to shiver, he trudged back the way he came, mind searching for the storm mage that almost certainly caused this unnatural rain.

The wind was brisk, not particularly fast but steady. Jace was reminded he hated the cold.

"Mal," he called out, knowing he had to have reached close enough to feel the other but not managing to do so. Ral had to be hiding himself on purpose. He reached the church once again, and circled around. 

_No._

_No. No. No._

He'd lost the other. He was the idiot that got them separated.

He searched the minds around him with more force than was entirely necessary, bruising a few along the way and leaving some mild headaches. That was just an elf getting groceries, a viashino on his way to work, a poor goblin seeking desperately to get out of the rain. A few people rushed past him, into the dry warmth the Orzhov promised—Jace did a doubletake as he realized the Orzhov were now selling umbrellas outside their church.

He hadn't thought to grab any of the zinos Ral boasted, and regretted it now. Where could he go that would let him warm up, maybe grab some food? He stood staring out to the great city of people now rushing around him with purpose, crossing his arms to his chest and trembling with cold.

Deciding he still had a duty to retrieve their notes, he began once again to the inn. He'd just conjure up an illusion that he was someone else, offer fake coins and make the innkeeper accept them. It was a little slippery moral-wise, but he'd only stay long enough to warm up by the fire and then leave. 

He changed appearance slowly to avoid detection. People didn't notice small changes. They often didn't recognize very large ones either. Changing one's hair first by color, then cut, then moving on to clothes one piece at a time, nobody noticed unless they were just that bored, and the people of the Tenth Precinct always had somewhere to be and no time to idly watch the streets.

He made it to the inn easily, annoyed that the rain still fell the entire trip. He might have just been thinking wishfully as he looked out a window and thought it may be letting up. Part of him hoped it never did until he found Ral. At least if was raining he hadn't been locked in detainment and he hadn't been attacked into submission.

Finding their notes had been short work, their old room easy to unlock with the right spell and the drawer easy to open with the right words. Someone else was occupying this room now; it was obvious with all the clothes discarded here and there that were definitely not either of their preferred styles.

Downstairs by the fire was crowded, so he settled for the bar, warming himself with a stiff drink that filled his stomach with gentle warmth. He felt bad the first drink in because he wasn't paying with real money, but by the end of the second, he didn't feel bad in the slightest.

He kept his mind open, a buzzed thought that he may happen to catch Ral convincing him to leave it open to the rabble around him. Still, he didn't notice until the crackling mind was entering the inn and almost beside him. "Ral! I mean, Mal, it's good to see you," he called, turning around with drink in hand.

Ral quirked an eyebrow, a less than pleased scowl pulling on his lips. He was just as soaking wet as Jace had been first entering the inn. Jace tilted his head as he pondered this. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to him that Ral wouldn't still be dry and warm.

"Done having a fit, I see," he said coolly, walking up to Jace and leaning hard against the counter.

"That's hardly fair. You just made the whole—" His voice caught in his throat at the look Ral gave him. Perhaps he shouldn't be letting everyone know how powerful Ral was, especially when reports were certainly out for a strong and deadly storm mage. "I'm sorry," Jace groaned.

"You got a room already?"

Jace almost informed Ral exactly what he'd accomplished immediately, but then stopped and considered. "May I?"

Ral cocked his head, asking," Can you…? Oh. Yeah, sure." As the look of understanding came to his eyes, he sat down beside Jace and ordered one of what his friend was having.

" _I found the notes. Got'em under my vest. And… I got a room, but I didn't really pay for it. Or these drinks._ "

Ral looked at him incredulously. "Really?"

Jace shrugged meekly. "The fire was taken, and I'm cold and wet. I had to warm myself somehow. For _some reason_ it started raining."

" _So you conned the staff for a room and some drinks?_ "

He glared at Ral. "Yes," he hissed. " _Someone left me with no money. What else could I do? I couldn't return to Emmara._ "

Ral gave a frustrated sigh and asked not so calmly," Can we just talk already?" He thanked the bartender with a tip of his head as he took the drink served to him and tipped it back for a large drink. Ral's eyes got wide as he had to keep from spraying it back out. Straight Golgari brandy? Did Jace have two livers? He looked to Jace with disbelief and held up his drink incredulously. His astonished mien demanded an explanation. Jace didn't give him one.

"Sure. I have the room rented already anyways. Let's head in for the night," Jace said, his eyes looking away from Ral's wordless questions.

Ral flagged the bartender and asked," Could you mix this with a cider? My husband's got bad taste." He didn't hate himself enough to stomach the brandy straight. Bringing his fixed drink with him, he helped Jace up the stairs and to his room. They went to the wrong one first because of Jace not being able to read the numbers on his key clearly, but they made it to their destination soon enough. 

Jace certainly wasn't too far gone, though quite past tipsy. His wobbling gait was amusing to Ral until he remembered that he'd actually wanted to discuss important things with him.

While Ral stood near the door, Jace found his way to bed, starting to take off his shoes and socks immediately. His feet were wet, and that was just one of the most unpleasant non-torturous things he knew of. Ral watched, sipping his drink as Jace fumbled with the tie in the back of his right boot. Jace grumbled and flopped back in bed, giving up. He wasn't even _that_ drunk—the cord was just double knotted and really difficult to untie while wet.

He felt his leg being lifted up and the cord get loosened easily, a stiff tug getting the boot off shortly. He fanned his toes out happily as the sock was rolled off. "Thanks," he mumbled, closing his eyes and debating on never getting up again.

"You should stop soaking the bed with your wet clothes. You're going to give yourself a cold," Ral chastised.

"Then take them off me," Jace teased.

Ral stood back up and threw Jace's sock in his face. "When you're sniffling tomorrow, it's not my fault." He picked his drink back up where he'd left it and sat in this room's chair. It was disappointingly not as comfortable as the last room's, even if that one hadn't been great either.

Jace lethargically began to work at the buckles of his vest and started speaking out loud, but in a way that made it unclear if he was speaking to Ral in particular. "It's always weird to see how the people who know you—know what you can do—look at you after you've done something simple."

"Jace." This wasn't how he expected to have this conversation.

"And I can't seem to ever respect boundaries. Did I even try? I don't know. Because I don't have my memories—What else is new?"

"Jace—"

"Are you scared of me?"

"No!"

"But you felt like you had to share your memories. I must have made you feel like th—"

"Jace, would you let me get a word in edgewise?" Ral irritatedly adjusted his dampener as he then began," You were scared and confused the first day. When you asked if it was okay, I _lied_ , okay? I wanted to make you feel better like you were able to do for me.

"And the next day, when you forgot everything all over again, you were still in a lot of pain and were so confused. You don't remember how much pain you were in. I was willing to do any small favor if it helped in the slightest, and I guess, I just got used to it. After the third day, it just seemed like routine.

"Even with your godlike powers, you can't be expected know everything. I was okay with it; it was just hard for me. I was making a choice that was uncomfortable, or whatever you felt, because I hoped it was helping you. And opening up like that is scary, but I wasn't scared of _you_."

Jace didn't know how respond. He didn't expect to break down into tears, but then, it wasn't really a surprise either. "But," he began softly, his words lost to a bubbling tightness in his throat," Seeing me take Emmara's memories, talking to you about church…"

"I don't know what to tell you, Jace." The soft metal on metal sound as his gear shifted with him standing and walking over once again reached Jace's ears. 

Ral roughly grabbed the notes tucked under Jace's vest, which he only ever finished undoing half the buckles. They'd been warded to be water resistant, but they still could benefit from being laid out to dry. Eh, he'd take care of it later.

He dropped the notes to the floor, the whoosh of them scattering was barely heard over him quickly undoing the rest of Jace's vest. "Come on. _Out_ ," he urged, pulling on Jace to encourage him to sit up. 

Jace reluctantly obliged, sitting up and feeling the vest being stripped off before him being pushed back. A hot hand pressed against his chest and his shirt became instantly dry and warm. With the stark comparison of his comfortably hot shirt and cold, damp pants, Jace didn't need more prompting to wriggle out of his trousers. Ral stood once more, his back to Jace, offering the privacy Jace needed.

"The ability to destroy another's mind is terrifying, alright? But so is lightning, and I don't begrudge you for jumping back from my sudden sparks. I like to hope that you don't resent me, that you're not leery of me, even after what I did."

"That was an accident," Jace protested.

"It still happened."

Ral gathered Jace's abandoned clothes and hung them to dry, then started to undress and do the same with his. It was difficult maneuvering with his gear, having to undo the harness in places here and there to work his stolen shirt off. He grabbed the extra blanket and took a seat, determining that nothing in the 'verse could make him get up until he got some sleep.

"Well, I trust you. I'm not afraid you'll hurt me."

Ral closed his eyes as he reached a position almost comfortable and muttered back," Then Azor's Blood, Jace. Just accept the same from me."

Ral extinguished the light in the room with a small drawing of mana.

Jace pulled the blankets on the bed close and rolled on his side so his back was to Ral. Tentatively, he wished," Good night, Ral."

"Go to sleep."

Accepting that things were as resolved as they were going to get, Jace inhaled deeply and forced his mind to not dwell on things right now. 

Sleep came easily.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long wait for this one, but here it finally is! My lovely beta has been reading over the story and finding my (many) errors, so I'll be updating the older chapters over the next few days. No changes in plot, pretty much just grammar, so you won't be missing any details if you don't go back and read the updated material. Thank you for reading!

Jace woke slowly, enjoying the warmth of the covers as he refused to open his eyes. He was too comfortable, how could anyone expect him to get out of bed? Hugging the blanket even closer to himself, he hoped Lavinia wouldn't come get him and say there was an emergency that required his attention.

His eyes cracked open as he belatedly realized something was wrong with that thinking. He wasn't the Guildpact right now, well, not the recognized one. He was in the past, wasn't he?

A cursory gaze around the room revealed Ral was gone, and Jace decided hazily that he would have to thank the man for not waking him. He felt so well rested, though, he found it difficult to remember why that may be in contrast to the past few days.

"Do you remember yesterday?"

Jace started at the sudden voice, sitting up with his blanket held close and seeing the door opening up. Ral pushed himself through the door, a plate of tantalizing food held in his normally gauntleted hand.

He remembered a crisp, warm shirt and cold, brisk walk. Events were jumbled, like he knew they had come back to the inn separately, but he couldn't remember why, but he knew they left Emmara's together, and that she'd never know they had. What he said was," That depends. Was it yesterday that we left Emmara's home?"

Ral grinned with relief and said," Bingo."

Jace had to guess he'd been having memory problems, and due to a visit to Emmara, that it must have been injury related. A hand subconsciously rose to his head, trying to feel for a healed over scar. "Did I hit my head?"

'Well, you don't remember everything, I guess." Ral sighed dramatically, like this was the biggest damned inconvenience, but honestly, he was just happy that Jace was starting to make long-term memories again.

Something niggling in back of his mind told Jace to pick his words carefully, and he asked," Care to fill me in?"

A rueful smile broke out as Ral laughed. He took a seat at the table and began eating. "Sure. We have about an hour before we have to leave for mass."

"Mass?"

"Church. You're going to church and snooping in the parishioners' heads for who might be willing to bribe our way into the Symposium for something we can trade."

Jace's heart skipped a beat as his stomach lurched. He was sure they must have discussed this yesterday or sometime during the completely gone memories, but hearing it said as a command, as a mission sent from someone else made him uneasy. He was done with his life as a useful telepathic spy.

"You okay?" The concern was palpable in Ral's voice and mind.

Jace often wondered how people could read him as easily as they did when they had no telepathic abilities. His readings of people's smiles, raised voices, and body language, was often only accurate when he brushed their mind ever so slightly.

"Yeah, I just—" Jace's throat was suddenly tight, and he wasn't sure that he could explain. How could he admit that Ravnica's Living Guildpact had been part of a crime syndicate? Had made his living in extortion, torture, and destroying minds?

"Hey, I was never a big fan, either. That said, you got any other idea how we get ourselves in the Symposium in one week?"

Jace looked to Ral with a small frown. "No."

"Same."

They both thought quietly, brainstorming for another way in. If they had just a little more time to plan, the two geniuses could have certainly concocted a brilliant plan. They had no time for failure though, and Jace gave a resigned sigh. "I suppose looking for a fair trade—" the thought made both of them snort; who ever heard of a fair trade with the Orzhov? "—is not so awful. We have little in the way of trade though."

Neither of them were willing to take on the job as old as time, they had next to no money, and they couldn't afford to part with any of Ral's gear—certainly the only expensive items they had brought with them that still remained. He scratched irritably at the thin fabric that covered his arms, longing once more for the reassuring weight his lucky cloak brought.

"You don't want to just give them fake money like the innkeeper?"

Jace grimaced. He vaguely remembered handing off small rocks as zinos. Guilt punched him in the gut, and he desperately hoped he had a good excuse. "No, their devotion to gold would make a lasting enchantment too difficult."

"Well, attending mass is still worth a try, isn't it? You never know what you'll find in the minds of those filthy rich bastards."

"True," Jace acknowledged. The Orzhov had long been known to find value in oddities every once in a blue moon, and they were never wrong when they did so. If he found something easy enough to acquire, they'd be set.

A grim thought occurred to him that the easiest trade he'd find was a desire to have blackmail on one of the other clergy members. He couldn't let himself go back to that life though; he'd promised himself he was done with blackmail. He'd prevented Kallist and himself an easier life because he refused to go back to it. How could he just break down and let himself do it "just once more" because Ral and he were in a bit of a tough spot? It would never be just once more if he allowed himself to scratch at the easy impulse once again.

Ral finished eating, and looked over to Jace who had yet to even get out of bed. "You'd best get yourself some food then, because Orzhov mass has a reputation of running _hours_. Hurry up, we're leaving for church in forty-five minutes."

The Orzhov church was massive and ornate. From the outside it looked enormous and prestigious, but the inside was where the real elaborate decoration was shown off. The gilded spires housed millennia old relics, and golden filigree etched the walls in such beauty that the two felt even more out of place than they had expected they would.

Each had minor enchantments weaved, slight alterations to their clothes to make them appear to be made of more expensive materials. It couldn't hope to be enough though, not with all the displayed finery that the regular church-goers wore in this lavish basilica. They hadn't even _reached_ the chapel yet, and Jace was pretty sure they walked past about a third of Ravnica's total wealth.

Jace helped them blend in during mass, reading how they should act before they needed to do so. When to get to their knees, when to bow their heads, when to look to the east and make prayers to some holy site, when to clap their hands and how many times to do so. It was a constant stream of information, and while none of the acts were hard, they were so many that Jace was wary of how difficult it would be to keep up without telepathic assistance.

When they had a while of just sitting quietly, pretending to pay attention to the head priest's sermon, Ral looked to Jace with curious eyes. " _So, have you found anyone yet?_ "

" _I can't._ " Jace guiltily averted his eyes.

" _Then why did we donate three zinos each?_ "

" _I'm sorry, I just can't._ "

Ral realized what he meant now. Jace hadn't even looked. " _Jace, we_ need _to get—_ "

Sharply looking to Ral with weary eyes, Jace interrupted," _I know exactly what I'll find, okay? And I can't. I can't go back to blackmail._ " He rubbed at his itchy eyes.

Ral was understandably curious as he echoed back," _Blackmail?_ "

Jace tried to keep himself from shrugging, not wanting to stand out any more than being a newcomer already made them. " _How else is a fifteen year old, amnesiac boy supposed to support himself on a new world with no friends or family?_ "

Ral too had been that young boy completely on his own. It may have been on the same world, but for how different it was than his hometown, it might as well have been a completely new one. He'd resorted to petty theft to get the tools he'd needed to make his own off of engineering repairs.

Jace found understanding in Ral's mind when he'd expected disappointment, and uncomfortably tried to return his focus to the sermon. In other attendees’ minds, he found they should prepare to stand, and Jace passed the knowledge to Ral.

With a nod of acknowledgement, Ral put on hand on the seat and the other on the back of the pew in front of them. He needed the extra support to stand with all the weight on his back. " _Well, I suppose this is a cultural experience, at least. Not a total waste of money. I wonder if mass is the same in the present._ "

" _If attendance expects a three zino donation now, I shudder to think what it costs seventy years from now_ ," Jace thought back with a mental roll of his eyes.

They stood and said their finishing prayer, Jace focusing hard to relay the thoughts of the parishioner beside him to Ral quickly enough that both of them could say the prayer in time with everyone else. 

Jace's legs were stiff by the time they finally were let out, but he had them stand and socialize in the congregation. It was expected, and they couldn't defy those expectations without drawing a strong amount of criticism and attention, something they didn't need with both the Azorius and Boros after them.

"Dude, look," Ral said with an elbow to Jace's side.

As Jace was about to complain, he saw what Ral had seen. Her decorum was recognizable anywhere. Jace stared a little open mouthed as Teysa Karlov came down into the congregation area. She looked young as ever, though Jace supposed that made sense since she had to be about in her forties right now.

"Go mingle with those two ladies over there," Jace said, pointing out who he meant. "You can easily impress them with your gauntlet, and then we'll probably have talked long enough we can go."

Ral looked to the women and then back to Jace. "And what are you going to do?" He snuck a furtive look towards Teysa once again. She was speaking with some of the clergy now, a mien of obligatory heed carved into her sage face.

"I don't need to search her mind. I know what she wants in trade," Jace said under his breath before holding out a hand. He felt the light bag of coins be dropped in his hands and tied it to his waist.

With a roll of his eyes, Ral said dryly," Don't spend it all in one place, honey."

Jace had been about to boldly stride forth, but stopped and snapped his gaze back to Ral. "Wait, what?"

"Oh, we're married, by the way."

"What—Why are we married?"

Ral shushed him to keep his voice down. "I'll explain later."

Jace nodded, accepting the news for now. It did explain the oddly cute glances one of the servers had given them this morning. Wasting no more time, Jace walked up to the group and stood just outside of it, slowly, naturally worming his way into the conversation.

One high priestess looked his way after ten minutes of struggling to get an audience and asked," And who are you?"

Jace had had the coins ready in his closed fist for a few minutes now, sensing he was close to being accepted into the conversation.

"Breyan," Jace introduced himself, bowing, kissing a zino and placing into her outstretched palm as was custom in gaining an informal audience with the clergy. It was custom to greet the asker with the first coin. He then kissed a zino goodbye to each other priest and clergy member, working his way through each of them—he saved Teysa for last, denoting her as the most important.

She accepted the zino with guarded interest of his certainly purposeful choice. As she slipped it into her ceremonial coin purse, she looked to him inquisitively. They continued talking in the group for a few minutes more, discussing simple topics like the newly refurbished pews' gilding and how nice the new chandeliers in the basilica were.

"Me and my husband have travelled quite a ways to get the opportunity to practice our faith in the home of Orzhova. This was truly beautiful, and we're so grateful for this opportunity," Jace waxed romantically as he was asked about what brought a newcomer like him to a place like this. "It took us two years of saving up, but we made the journey all the way from Favriel." He chose a well enough off city, but certainly one that didn't boast abundant wealth.

"Perhaps I could give you a tour. Your husband is of course welcome," Teysa offered with a knowing look, and Jace returned her gaze in kind.

"That would be wonderful," he accepted. "I'll go get him now, if you're free."

"Yes, I usually have afternoon tea around this time. If you'll excuse us." she bowed her head. The head priestess' hand was extended to her and Jace could read the bitterness radiating from her mind as she obligatorily kissed the expensive ring on the knobby hand.

Jace offered his arm, and she took it out of respect. He wasn't really prepared to be her support, he found, but he learned quickly as he read her annoyed thoughts about idiots who didn't know the first thing about being a good guide and insisted on being it anyways. He was guilty as charged, but hopefully his swift increase in skill assuaged the justified irritation.

"Mal," he called as he approached Ral with the ladies he'd pointed him to with a few others who'd joined the conversation. A rise of jealousy made him swallow the resentment down as Ral continued chatting the women up about his awesome hand-made gauntlet in lieu of paying Jace attention. He repeated the alias slightly louder, embarrassment coloring his cheeks as Teysa looked to him with amusement.

"Yeah, Breyan," he finally answered, looking around.

"May I introduce you to Miss Kalov."

With indifference, she filled in her full title," Teysa Kalov, Advokist of the Orzhov."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Ral said with a bow of his head. The people he'd been entertaining slowly drifted to other conversations as it became clear Teysa wasn't simply passing by. 

Teysa led them through the ornate halls, past the gorgeous if gaudy gem inlaid walls of courtyard, and to her personal office. Once they entered, she broke from Jace somewhat eagerly and leaned against the wall instead. Hand trailing for support as she made her way to the grand, but surprisingly unembellished chair, she took comfort in its simple but soft upholstery.

He set her cane nearby, not really knowing the etiquette, and noticed that while the handle was intricately carved and inlaid with jet and opals, the desk he propped it against was plain ebony. Jace looked around and realized that while all of her book cases and other expected items of an elite's office were made of high quality material, none of it was half as ornately decorated as the basilica or chapel.

"Would you like any tea?" she asked, looking to a thrull that came to her side holding a readied platter for company.

Jace nodded and said," That would be lovely, thank you."

The two of them sat across from her in plain, oak chairs. She had another of her thrulls start up the nearby fireplace. Ral eyed the fire, thinking how hot it was today already.

"I hate being cold," Teysa said softly, rubbing her lame leg softly as if to work out a numb ache. "The rain yesterday was awful."

That sounded like Ral's doing, and Jace looked to his companion accusatorily. He couldn't actually remember Ral calling rain clouds, but he could remember a bright, beautiful day and upset feelings. Ral glared back at him, daring him to say anything.

As their tea was poured, Teysa said," Alright, let's cut to the chase. I know you're not really here to discuss some new gaudy chandelier or the weather. What's your business with me?"

Ral took initiative and volunteered," We want to be on the guest list for the Mizzium Symposium happening next week."

"I don't take bribes and break laws like my lowly brethren," she sneered.

"We're not asking that. It's just that you have a high standing and political sway we do not. Surely you must have a favor or two that you could ask," Ral quickly made clear. Jace had to pick the one Orzhov too snobbish to accept bribes.

"And what do I get out of this?"

Ral looked to Jace; this was his department. Ral honestly had no clue what she could want out of them.

"Power," Jace answered smoothly, his voice quiet because he knew she would strain to hear his words. "Knowledge that could help you overthrow the Obzedat."

"Color me interested. Continue."

Jace sat back in his chair, crossing his arms casually. "Well, seeing as the nature of this trade is knowledge based, it really isn't fair to say more unless you agree to the trade."

"I can assume you're aware that trading for open ended knowledge is not a sound business practice. Your 'knowledge' could just be that the Obzedat are old, insidious ghosts. While true, not very enlightening."

"It regards _Anonymous_ ," he gave away. He didn't have to put the simple word into context. She should know he meant the quote from _The Generational Manifesto for the Orzhov's Future_. In later years, she would cite it to him in confidence that it was one of the most liberating quotes she'd ever read. That it was that quote that had truly gotten her involved with the power plays she'd struggle through for the next seventy years and then some.

"No one knows who Anonymous is anymore," she argued.

Ral leaned in further than the backed chair required him to. "You will, if you help us."

"It is a tempting offer," Teysa admitted," But I will need to verify your truthfulness."

Ah yes, law magic. The Guildpact was well aware of of her affinity for the law, and if his countenance grew a little irritable, it was well deserved from future Teysa. "Certainly," he agreed.

She held one hand up, and he mirrored her. Arcane muttering brought forth a circle of light around him and herself. It was different from the Azorius verification circles. Instead of the brilliant light that shone through dusk with a righteous, piercing white gold, it was like honeyed sunlight floating through the dust of an old library. It bound his tongue, and it tasted like he ate a tablespoon of flour.

"When you speak of Anonymous, do you speak of the speaker of the quote in _The Generational Manifesto for the Orzhov's Future_ , the quote that questions why the Obzedat still collect coin with fervor?"

"Yes."

One eyebrow quirked and she restrained a tangible excitement as she asked," Do you know know who Anonymous is?"

"No."

Teysa's face fell flat. Disappointment that she should have expected dragged at her heart.

Jace didn't know the name, only remembered a vague impression of what it sounded like, but he remembered her story of how she found it. The importance that she discovered it on her own, outside of the lies of her family, he remembered that.

"I know where you can find it," he said, the truth binding circle giving no sign to falsity.

Teysa waved one manicured hand and dismissed the circle. "Alright," she decided. "We'll trade your secret for my getting you invited."

Jace sensed more law magic coming and braced himself.

"I, to the best of my ability, will pull favors to get…"

"Mal," Ral pointed to himself, then Jace. " And Breyan Hildact."

"... To get Mal and Breyan Hildact on the invitation list for the Mizzium Symposium. In return—"

Jace cut her off before she could use his false name and break the circle. " _I_ will inform Teysa Karlov of how to find the identity of Anonymous, the acclaimed and criticized writer of the quote in _The Generational Manifesto for the Orzhov's Future_ 's seventh volume."

She nodded agreeably as she sealed this spell. Her heart thrummed with exhilaration, the knowledge about to be departed on her of such significance, she already was thinking of how she would acquire the other works of this author once she had a name.

"On your father's one hundred and twentieth birthday, you will have an opportunity to slip unattended into the family vault. There will be a book, old and bloodstained, on the table beside the grand piano.

"In it contains the names of many contraband books, and there will be an entire chapter on an aristocrat that tempted fate too far against the Obzedat," Jace said simply, no need for theatrics when she could detect any lie.

Teysa let him finish, not wanting to disrupt him and not hear the entire song-and-dance as consequence. She had one very large problem with this though. "You expect me to wait until my father's big one twenty to see the end to this trade? That's four years from now."

"I mean, you already made a spellbinding oath to trade that secret for your help. We can't help you don't like it," Ral said with a shrug. Both Teysa and Jace shot him murderous glares, and Ral chuckled nervously. "But in the meantime, I can sweeten the pot."

With a look of doubt, Teysa lightly encouraged," Oh?"

"For a investment of ten zinos, and payoff of fifteen, I can make you a device so your legs won't have to be cold anymore," he boasted. They needed the money, and it wasn't a complete lie that it would cost a pretty zino to make.

"What do you have in mind?" She didn't trust his claim.

Ral answered easily," Leggings that will warm your legs even in a frigid snowstorm."

"Why such the steep price?"

"Well I'm guessing you don't want to be wearing the threads of a pauper. I will need to buy a new pair of luxurious leggings for you and the tools to soup them up."

Teysa considered it. They _were_ approaching the wet season, and her leg did ache so badly when cold and wet. "When could you have them done by?"

"When we come to pick up our tickets for the Symposium."

"Ten and Ten," She countered his initial price. She may not be obsessed with money like the rest of her family, but she also was frugal and would not be made a fool of.

"Ten and thirteen," Ral returned.

"Ten and twelve, and that's final," Teysa said with a bite to her voice. She could get a little competitive when haggling.

" _She means it. She will go no higher_ ," Jace shot to Ral quickly.

Ral took a second to put on a look of contemplation. "Fine, you've got yourself a deal," he agreed slowly, like he had to put deep consideration into it first.

They discussed materials, measurements, and exact specifics afterwards. Jace thought he may die of old age before they could leave her office, but at long last, Ral and Teysa had ironed everything out. 

As they walked through the Orzhov basilica, Ral whistled and said," Well, I guess I know what I'm doing for the next while. It will be a time crunch, but I'm pretty sure I can get it made in five days."

"We best pick up the materials now then," Jace said, grabbing the slightly heavier coin purse at his belt. A relief settled through him at its heft.

"Definit—" Ral's voice broke away from him as just barely dodged a soft _thwung_ of a bolt. He made out white clothing on the owner of the crossbow wielder, but he couldn't look long enough to find the blue or red accents that would give away precisely who was trying to kill him.

Jace grabbed his hand and pulled, and Ral went with it no questions asked. They were running through the streets, finding alleys and crowded squares to lose their pursuer in, and Jace was grumbling," I really, really hate running."

Ral pulled them sharply right so they could make a turn into a dark alley. "I really, really hate whichever Orzhov accepted a bounty on us."

It took an hour of running, but they finally escaped the guard. Jace had to sit down to catch his breath, leaning against an alley wall and panting heavily. "Sometimes I really hate being at odds with the law."

"Then you should stop breaking it," Ral offered unhelpfully.

"Yeah, okay. Says the man that led an Izzet team invading half of Ravnica on a whim."

"The Implicit Maze was hardly a whim."

Jace laughed," Yeah, it wasn't after I solved it for you."

Ral threw a shoe at him, and Jace laughed more as he raised an arm to protect his face. 

"You couldn't even remember the answer," Ral retorted, but he too was laughing now, the exhilaration of succeeding in running from their captors still pumping adrenaline through his blood. He fell to the ground exhaustedly, sitting opposite of Jace.

"A slight against both of us, it was easy enough Ruric Thar _could_." Not that they could understand the bits of research they read during his destruction of the sanctum, but with Jace's own coding of his hiring the two headed cyclops, the answer had been readable to Jace.

They both laughed even harder as they took a breather from escaped capture. They were near the Izzet market, but they owed themselves a break.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I updated, but here is a large chapter to make up for it! 
> 
> TW moderate body horror

Jace was a little overwhelmed by the grandness of the Izzet market. It wasn't grand in the sense of Orzhov opulence or Selesnya populousness. A crammed market that could have easily taken up three square miles was compactly layered in on itself so that any ware that one could possibly desire for engineering was present, but Jace felt may take him seven years to find.

Ral seemed at home though. He was generally a man that gave off the air of feeling in place no matter his environment; he blended well to anything Ravnica had to throw at him. This was his place to shine though.

In minutes, Jace was struggling to keep up as Ral whirled from vendor to vendor, asking all the right questions and haggling down to reasonable prices. They would bump into each other as Ral came to sudden stops, and Jace's skin would tingle. The simple but intense joy Ral was experiencing danced across Jace's skin and mind and he was honestly starting to get a little buzzed off the euphoria.

"Jace," Ral excitedly whispered, and Jace was too caught up in the moment to correct the use of real name.

He looked to Ral and tried to control the dazed bliss he was in. "What?" That feeling of, _he knows_ , that accompanied any time a person tried to hide their less than sober state, flared through Jace's mind. A little more clearly, he repeated," What?"

"I just got an _authentic_ one thirty-nine tweezer-soldering iron for a zino. A single zino."

"Mal…" Jace's voice fell with underwhelming truth. "We're under the hundred thirty-ninth signet. It's just a tweezer-iron."

"It's just a—" Ral scoffed in an affronted voice. "It's not _just_ anything. It was a work of art. Your blasphemous mouth ever utters such an insult ever again and I'm not taking you back with me."

Jace rolled his eyes. "Okay, Mal."

Ral's giddiness was still there, and Jace grinned lopsidedly. He was happy to see Ral was enjoying himself so much, especially after all of the distressing events over the past few days. 

"All I need is some copper wiring, ooh, mizzium if we can afford it. Then we should probably work on finding a new inn. Preferably one with a big table. Maybe we should look in the Combine." 

Ral's brain was working faster than his mouth, and Jace, who had been leaving his mind fully open to the exuberance, was now caught in the eddies of Ral's planning. Ral was still talking, and Jace was pretty sure it was about how he intended to run the wiring. He couldn't follow the thoughts tripping over themselves and had to pull himself back to his own, isolated mind.

Shaking his head to gather his thoughts, Jace asked," Wait—what?"

"Where did you stop paying attention?"

"I found it hard to start," Jace admitted, rubbing his befuddled head. "Why an inn in the Combine?"

Ral looked to Jace like he couldn't be serious, like he was missing something obvious. He waved Jace to follow him through the crowded streets to find a vendor of circuitry wiring. "Simic. Izzet. Hundred thirty-ninth signet."

"What does that have to do with… Oh, right." Jace sighed with a dry laugh. "Has the Izzet ever been on good terms with _any_ Guild _ever_?"

Ral glared at him shortly and shut him out as they approached his target and he started talking to the woman behind the counter with fervor about her product. They discussed preferred gauges and the pros and cons of each, the elasticity required for joints under heavy wear, and how durability and flexibility often were inversely correlated.

When she asked his projected longevity he hoped for, he answered," I'm really hoping to make this run for a lifetime. You know, at least seventy years."

Jace listened, and he tried to keep up as they ran through the best fit for Ral's project, but they were talking too fast, using too many shortcuts in their speech and a lot of jargon. Jace was smart, and a quick read, but he was not an engineer. The math behind it, he could understand, but why seven gauged spun mizzium wire was just _obviously_ required for this job, but could hold no candle to eighteen gauged wire wrapped in cords for _that_ job was too far beyond his experience.

Ral and the vendor seemed to come to some some kind of agreement and Ral gave away more of their few coins. They only had seven zinos left now, and Jace worried how they would last a week on such little money. A single zino could get a man room and board for a day, but they could only share a room and that would cost them every zino they had left—they hadn't even bought the fabric for the leggings.

Jace worried his hands, anxiety of the future plain as day on his nervous brow. A lack of money was a lack safety and certainty. He couldn't help as he trailed behind ever so slightly as they made way to leave Izzet space and find the Combine. Ral seemed unperturbed, though his earlier glee wasn't so strong as to pull Jace in anymore.

"How much do you think the fabric will cost?" Jace haltingly asked.

"Oh, with the lace and notions, at least two zinos, though hopefully I can get a deal. I know exactly what I have to find."

Jace couldn't help himself as he exasperatedly echoed," Two zinos?"

"Sure. You don't expect Miss Teysa, too prim to do her own dirty work, Karlov to wear plain wool leggings, do you?"

"You'd be amazed the dirty work she's done," Jace intoned," Puts you to shame."

"Me?" Ral emphatically swung a hand to chest, mocking some great insulted air.

"You've nibbled at the heels of power, she's been in a fifty year struggle to usurp it," Jace returned without thinking.

With an actually resentful air, Ral picked up his walking, clipped pace making his gear ring softly with each step.

Jace only then realized he misspoke, and began backpedaling as he said," I mean, I just personally have learned of some of her earlier schemes is all, and—"

"Save it, Guildpact."

"Ral—"

"Just drop it."

Jace clamped his mouth shut. He and Ral really hadn't talked much before their bout of lab work, and they really didn't talk during that either. He didn't know much about Ral, only the snippets he got from him from their work on Project Lightning Bug together. He didn't actually know much about Ral other than he was from Ravnica, had been gifted in magic as a child, and had dedicated his life to becoming an elite in the Izzet. 

Exhaling roughly, Jace could now see where he messed up. Ral had probably intended more power than he ever got. He wasn't even the true Izzet choice for maze runner; he'd murdered his way into that position.

They spent awhile in silence, taking less walked roads to get to the the Simic's botanical wonder. They couldn't walk as fast without splashing themselves with muddy water, and Ral had to weigh remaining unapproachable and keeping his pants nice and clean. He always had been a little fashion oriented. Vanity wasn't a prerequisite of joining the Izzet, but it certainly went hand in hand.

"Five zinos. How are we going to survive a week on five zinos?"

Ral looked over to Jace, flashing an arrogant smile. "I'll just have to finish this before we run out," he said simply.

"I thought you were projecting it would be hard to even finish before the Symposium."

"We needed to spend the money, Jace. There's nothing we can do about it. I mostly made this deal to get the funds to afford to refine the mizzium. Half the stuff I bought today was stuff I need to fix my gauntlet."

Jace didn't look mollified, but he nodded along anyways.

The chill of the breeze coming off the surrounding bodies of water sent a chill through Jace, only furthering his irritable discomfort. He scratched at his arms idly, scowling as they trudged further into the district. The strange looks many of the residents directed their way did nothing to alleviate his insecurity.

They found what barely passed for a market a ways into the Combine, bombarded with offers of medical miracles until they found a small craft store that mostly pedaled canvases and other rough but sturdy materials, but had a decent array of fine fabrics.

Ral would not accept anything less than perfect for his plans, and refused choice after choice after choice. That silk was too glossy, and that wool too plain. Velvet wasn't right either, and the linen wasn't durable enough. Finally, after almost twenty minutes of talking to the shop owner, Ral got what he was looking for. 

"You have to have something more proper, befitting a noble, maybe in a pearly white, light grey?" Ral had posed, pointing out the threadcount was atrocious on the last fabric the owner tried to sell him.

"Well, we have one more fabric available, but it's expensive. It takes us about half a year to turn out a hundred yards," the owner conceded.

"I'll take it."

Jace looked to him warily and pointed out the obvious," _You haven't even seen it._ "

" _I don't have to. I know what I'm getting_ ," Ral sent back cryptically, looking to Jace with a lopsided smile.

Sure enough, when they came back with the lustrous and expensive fabric, Ral was perfectly pleased and bought two yards of it, along with the basics to sew and some lace that caught his fancy.

Sure enough, they were out two more zinos, and were down to a measly three to last them six days. Nothing in this neighborhood would be in their price range for board, much to Jace's lament. 

He missed his extravagant bed and goose down pillow, and he missed the Orzhov tea he took in his office when he worked on Guildpact matters. He always had been swayed by luxurious living. It had been what caused him to begin blackmailing, and contributed to his choice to enter the Consortium.

Ral didn't seem overly concerned about where they stayed, though he begrudged that wherever they wound up probably wouldn't have the best work station.

They walked to what many considered the dregs of the Combine. This water logged hole in the ground was where the failed experiments and experimenters lived. Without access to direct sunlight for more than an hour or two a day, the water sat and molded its surroundings. Buildings were falling apart and trees were formed in weird coils, long since adapting to the burst roots of oversaturation.

An inn was harder to find than they initially suspected it would be, and when they finally found something, Jace had to physically restrain himself from turning up his nose at what they got.

The inn was considerably cheaper than their last, which Jace had found tolerable at best, but it provided him a little comfort that their coin would stretch longer. The tangible presence of water also boosted his overall feeling as mana flowed through freely. If only the sense of abundant power could go hand in hand with sanitary living space.

They were shown their room, and both of their noses wrinkled at its condition. They really had found the cheapest board in all of Ravnica without resorting to just roughing it in the Rubblebelt. 

"No table, but the floor is dry enough at least," Ral commented under his breath. He'd probably steal the blanket from the bed and set out a makeshift work sheet so he didn't lose any small pieces to the floorboard cracks. Hand clutching his purchases of the day, he eagerly looked forward to beginning his work. This would be one of his finest, most delicate attempts of creation with mizzium, and he was ready for the challenge.

Mizzium was a special metal, prized across the plane for its rarity and wondrous properties. More conductive than gold in both electricity and mana, it made for great conduits, but it also was durable and could hold its shape better than worked iron. Only skilled artificers could work it, needing mana to spin the fine threads it was able to become or shape the sturdy plates resistant to most obstacles it may ever come up against.

Perhaps the most wondrous of all was its resistance to outside magic. When a skilled mage weaved magic into it, or even a simple magicless layman used it, only their essence could affect it. No other source of mana could warp it, manipulate its function, obstruct its purpose. Mizzium was sturdy, dependable, and unaffected by outside magic.

There was a reason that no Izzet guildmage worth their salt would use anything but mizzium for truly important creations.

Ral knew how to work mizzium with the best of them, he actually had supplied many of the supporting changes in its refining process and worked closely with the elite of the League in pushing the limits of their prized metal. He was one of those limits.

Mizzium was practically indestructable from outside magic, but his own mana would be accepted by his instruments with no hesitation, and that was his problem. Rarely, but it did happen, he would generate too much energy, pull too much mana from around him and channel too strong of magic through his instruments. Thus the few, handful over his whole life, incidents where his creations malfunctioned.

He had to control himself even more than usual while he worked his craft. Spinning such delicate circuits as he was about to could melt instantly into failure if he broke focus and let forth his electricity into the fragile circuitry. 

Ral took the quilt and set it out over the floor, smoothing it into the flattest workspace he could manage. "I'm going to start working then. Try not to bother me, okay?"

Jace opened his mouth to protest, but clamped it again. He could sense the concentration already knitting itself in Ral's brain as he sat cross-legged on the blanket and began to sort out what he had bought.

Jace watched quietly as Ral removed his gauntlet for better maneuverability in his fine motor skills and donned a wearable magnifying glass. He began to stretch out some wire, deciding the best way to go about things as he prepared to start. It was boring to watch at this stage, just a lot of Ral measuring and remeasuring, marking out guidelines on the cloth and making sure to get them _just_ right.

He couldn't exactly leave though. Half the time they walked the streets they were recognized, and it wasn't like he had money to spend. What could he do in the streets of rundown Simic territory? Not much, but then, he wasn't doing much just staring at Ral work, unable to make the slightest noise without an irritated volley of static in his direction.

With a bored pout, Jace went to inspect the contents of the single drawer in their room. There was a religious text, and Jace found with a hum of interest he wasn't actually familiar with the lore surrounding any Simic creation myth. Laying down on the bed and flipping open to the first page, he decided now was as good as any to become acquainted.

It only took him hour of dedicated reading to finish.

Dropping the book to his chest, he sighed wearily. Jace rolled to his stomach and looked to Ral. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Ral cursed as the distraction lead him to frying a small portion of his elaborate web of circuits, and looked back to Jace irritably.

Jace frowned meekly, tucking his chin in his folded arms. "Sorry, I just wanted to know if I could help."

Glaring for a second before cooling down, Ral chewed his lip as he thought it over. "How's your sewing?"

"I don't even know how to thread a needle, honestly." He could learn how easily. He could steal the experience out of Ral's head and follow the other's instincts, but if they weren't both focused on exactly the same task, his work would end up subpar.

"Then, nope."

Jace saw that answer coming but still groaned and rolled back to looking up at the ceiling. He tried his best to ignore the certain mold growing above their heads. He was so _bored_. If only this district was rich enough to have a library. He supposed he'd never really bothered to keep an eye out for one, but Ral probably wouldn't like the idea of him going out on his own anyways. He'd probably get mugged.

He must have dozed in his boredom, because he felt the inky blackness envelope him.

_Inky blackness became the dark, gloomy landscape of Innistrad. Mixed elements of the plane culminated in a strange conglomeration Stensian forest and Thraben cathedrals in all manners of unmarred and dilapidated._

_Jace was standing in the middle of the forested city, looking out and finding distinct corners in the sky like he was stuck in the tower of his friends minds. Now it was his turn to be the subject of a diorama for some creep to look on—did that mean he saw himself as creepy—and he spun to find the invisible wall._

_In the midst of his fruitless twirling, he heard it. He heard the voice. He heard Her voice._

_"We'mrakul."_

_"Be'mrakul."_

_"One'mrakul."_

_The chorus of voices was deafening. The singular voice was a chorus and its oppressive depth was physically heavy as Jace found his knees giving out and his hands meeting the wet ground as he sunk down painfully._

_A chime rang in the base of his skull and he gave a shuddering sigh of relief. The onslaught of the horror's voice ebbed, but it was still present and sweat beaded down his forehead._

_"Jace." The light voice, a bell tone like the control her mind granted, was tainted with anger. Looking up to her anxiously, Jace saw the moonfolk, and more concerningly, the beginnings of corruption near her eyes._

_"The story is gone. It's your fault the story is gone," she accused._

_Jace got to his feet, raising his hands defensively, and said," I'm sorry that your story was used! I didn't…" His voice was a whining imitation of what it should have been, or did he really sound that annoying?_

_Tamiyo's hands struck out and twined around his neck.The second her flesh met his, the skin melded and latticework formed, magenta flesh growing where fair and pale blue had been. Jace gave a strangled yelp, but it fell silent on his lips as further horror gurgled from his lips from looking back to Tamiyo's face._

_The same magenta lattice had covered her eyes and blood was beginning to stream down her cheeks._

Plip. Plip. Plip.

_The blood dripped down onto her arms, but Jace could feel it like it was his own._

_"You stole my story," she said. "Only because you dragged me into your problems. Problems that weren't even yours, but you took upon yourself because you're selfish. You crave to feel like you're not the waste of space you are."_

_This wasn't really Tamiyo, this—this… this wasn't right. Jace tried to pull away, but she walked with him, their bonded skin making them move as one._

_"Please," he gasped, his neck filling with the purple bruises that had formed under much larger hands some time ago. "Let go…"_

_He raised a hand to pull away one of her hands, but as it neared, his fingers broke into sinewy tentacles that affixed to her arm. "Get away from me. I'm sorry about your story, I really am, but—" He gave strangled gasps as the lattice tightened._

_"One'mrakul."_

_"Be'mrakul."_

_"We'mrakul."_

_Jace couldn't shut out the voices and they overpowered his senses. The throbbing sense of oneness crushed him and he sunk back to the ground again, tentacles beginning to worm out from his stomach and wriggle searchingly for the body he was joining with._

_"Jace."_

_That wasn't Tamiyo's voice. It wasn't the horrific unison of many._

_"Jace!"_

_A terrible pain burned through him, his chest and limbs feeling numb. Had the fusion of his and Tamiyo's body progressed to the point of sensation surpassing sharing—falling to the reactionless of many horrors that didn't seem to bare any consciousness anymore?_

_As he wondered that, her body seemed to melt into him further, their forms becoming less distinct and more bulbous in anyone's guess where one started and the other ended. She'd folded closer and now their opposite cheeks tingled as sinew began to attach her closest eye to his, his vision fading as it slowly began to stream his own blood down his own face._

Plip. Plip.

_"Jace," the alien voice was more frantic now._

_The pain in his chest blossomed in his chest again, and Jace felt a beautiful moment of isolation._

_"Jace, please."_

_The voice was so loud, as if it was in his ear, but it wasn't Tamiyo. It couldn't be; her mouth had merged with his shoulder. His senses were starting to dull quickly, and Jace blearily thought that he was going to be gone. He would be one._

_"Be'mrakul."_

_"One'mrakul."_

"JACE."

Jace woke screaming, if not from his nightmare but from the jolts of electricity tingling through his limbs painfully. 

"Jace, wake up," the same voice pleaded, and Jace opened his eyes blearily to see a frantic, _scared_ Ral.

Realizing belatedly that he must have shared his nightmare, Jace sputtered," Oh, Ral. I'm sorry." 

He repeated apologies flusteredly as he tried to sit up, feeling Ral's hands tightening around his arms and offering support. His heart hurt and breathing was difficult, his apologies starting to be just gasped attempts at words.

"Jace, shh, just shut up for a second," Ral said with less tact than one trying to calm someone usually applied. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I… you…" Jace's hand went from his head towards Ral's, the weakness in how numb it felt keeping him from controlling it properly and actually making contact with Ral's hair when he'd meant to stop just before. "I shared… I'm sorry."

He'd only ever shared a nightmare twice before, that he could remember, and he'd been so afraid the first time. So afraid she'd leave him. The look Liliana had given him as she woke him, the glare just before it smoothed out to the warm support he wanted… Jace cast his gaze down.

Now that most of the Gatewatch all slept in his home on Ravnica, he accidently bled over into Nissa's dreaming once, seizing it with the trauma of his past. He was so embarrassed. Why couldn't he control his powers?

Ral adjusted his dampener once again, having lost control of his lightning a few times over the last few minutes. "Just hold up, I'm trying to understand what happened."

Jace took a second to breathe, then looked Ral in the eyes. They were warmer than usual, Jace thought, a rich and inviting deep brown. Perhaps they just seemed warmer than the cold of Innistrad and its horrors.

"I… I shared my dream with you, I guess. I- I didn't mean to. I just—" He ground the heels of his palms into his eyes as he groaned. His arms were shaking, he noticed, much more than simply being scared should have lead to, and they also hurt quite a bit. "Did you _electrocute_ me to wake me up?"

"Not electrocute— _shock_ —and well, I mean, I didn't mean to. It kind of just happened." Ral wouldn't admit it out loud, but he had been afraid of the images forcing their way into his mind. The gods' awful voice that had permeated his mind and sensations of his flesh crawling to adhere to another's skin.

Sniffling back tears that he'd managed thankfully to contain, Jace asked," Did I ruin your project?"

"No," Ral dismissed with a flippant wave of the hand. "Just bent a few manabonds in shock. And, well, the first shock only overloaded a handful of circuits."

Jace nodded abstractedly, only able to take in the basic message that he hadn't completely fucked everything up. He looked down curiously as Ral placed a hand over his chest, and opened his mouth to ask but was interrupted.

"I may have disrupted your rhythm," Ral admitted. He was feeling for the electrical impulses in the heart."I kind of reset the pattern of your heart."

Jace's jaw dropped, and he astonishedly asked," What?"

"Not like a hard restart or anything. Just wanted it to get back on the right beat," Ral fumbled.

"I—yeah, okay. Sure. I need a second to catch my breath," Jace dismissed, finding he really didn't care right now. He just wanted to feel safe for a moment, in Ral's arms, not fusing to the other, but just being supported. He shrunk in on himself as sitting up became too much, and let out a surprised but grateful gasp has Ral curled an arm around him and pulled him to his chest. Ral said nothing; he had a first hand knowledge of just how scared Jace had been and how upset he still probably was.

Jace rested his head in the crook of Ral's neck and shoulder, and he closed his eyes to offer himself even more intimate privacy. His shaking breath quieted slowly, and he didn't look forward to when he would have to look Ral in the eyes after this. He needed this comfort, but Ral had to think he was pathetic, trembling in his arms and on the verge of tears for seconds that dragged into minutes.

"What in the 'verse were you dealing with on Zendikar?"

Jace quietly corrected," Innistrad. That was on Innistrad." With a weak sigh, he continued," Emrakul." The name deserved a pause afterwards, as the singular concept needed time to understand the vastness of Her existence, even if only ever a brief, imperfect understanding could be realized.

"She came to Innistrad and warped the people and creatures of the plane to madness. As one gave in… they changed, they became horrors. Even—" Jace broke off as he shuddered, remembering Brisela. "Even the angels fell to madness, and began killing their own flock."

Avacyn's bloodied wings and terrific, sublime hatred came to Jace's mind and Ral flinched. Jace tried to shore up his own mind better, make sure nothing could escape, especially the overwhelming sight and feeling of Emrakul's presence.

At some point Ral's other hand came to wrap around Jace's head, fingers combing through his hair. The point that the multiverse was too dangerous, that those horrors he'd seen were endangering Ravnica's future, was on the tip of Ral's tongue. Before he could say it though, he bit his lip to keep from saying anything. He didn't understand Jace's self-imposed obligation to the multiverse, but Jace didn't need to hear his complaints right now. 

He brushed his fingers through Jace's hair slowly as he thought about the scars he'd seen that littered Jace's body. Just what endless stream of hardship had Jace put himself through? For pointless imagined duty to people he didn't even know?

Jace felt a calm settle over him, it took a long time, but he was able to pull away even though he would have loved to stay for another hour. "You should probably get working," he said kind of forlornly. He knew Ral didn't have a lot of time afforded to him though, and he was afraid of overstaying his welcome and Ral ending his embrace first.

Ral shrugged and looked away, a strange mix of embarrassment and nonchalance on his face as he agreed," Yeah, not a bad idea."

"I'll get us some dinner," Jace offered, figuring making himself useful would be best for getting his mind off things.

"Sure. Don't get me anything hot though. I probably won't take a break until I finish…" Jace tried to follow, but Ral was using his engineer shoptalk again. Jace swore that he would read every bound text on engineering ever written when they finally managed to return home.

Feeling a little stupid, Jace prodded at Ral's mind—just a little, enough to understand what he was talking about. Ral instantly stopped talking with a screwed up pout and quirking eyebrow. 

"Uh, I just got confused with the jargon," Jace said with the look of a kid caught red handed. He hadn't expected Ral to realize his light poking through the base thoughts; he'd not noticed that light of reading before. Ral must be getting used his mind's presence, picking up on even its most subtle perusal.

A brief flash of distrust sparked in Ral's mind, crackling against Jace's mind as it was in retreat, but it evened out and Ral shrugged as he got to his feet. He looked like he was wrestling with himself on a decision, and he finally looked back and said very forced casually," Let me know next time." He offered a hand up to Jace, looking away to keep up an appearance of nonchalance.

Jace pulled himself up, wincing at how hard standing seemed and how movement exacerbated the dull ache in his chest. He couldn't help but place a hand to his chest, relieving some pain with the light pressure.

Ral muttered profanely, a coloring of guilt shaping his words, but he just walked away back to his work. Dropping down to sitting cross legged and naturally assuming a hunched posture, he began to tinker once again after throwing out a mess of wire that had exploded in every which way and noticeably followed arcs typical of electricity.


	12. Chapter 12

Sandwiches had been for dinner. A simple fungus of the nearby underdark farm supplying the village. The Golgari were responsible for feeding over half of Ravnica's population, and most of their patrons were the poor. Jace still nibbled on his mushroom sandwich two hours later, and Ral had yet to touch his.

"That's it, I'm done for the night," Ral declared, setting down the fine wiring with an exhausted sigh. He moved with obvious stiffness as he tried to get to his feet, gave up, and just held out a hand in a silent demand for food.

Jace obliged, getting up and passing the plate he'd grabbed for Ral. The sandwich looked just as appealing as it had when it was fresh, and that was to say that Jace was only eating his because he was that bored. Such commoner food didn't agree with his palate. 

It didn't seem to bother Ral too much as he dug in. Two bites in, he was almost caught up with Jace.

"I need to find something to do for tomorrow," Jace decided aloud. Sitting on the bed with his feet drawn in a light stretch, he stared at the floor like it would provide answers. "I'll drive myself insane, holed up in this moldy inn."

Ral responded with a full mouth of food," In this kind of district, you might be able to get yourself something pretty for coin or two. Maybe there's an arcane store somewhere nearby."

With a mildly condescending tone, Jace scoffed," I doubt it. Anyways, we don't have a coin or two to spare. We're only going to make it through the week on what we have because we sold them the story of us being mugged on our honeymoon."

"Not much to do on Ravnica for free unless you join a guild," Ral said with a shrug. There was a reason that guilds got so many recruits despite many of them having infamous reputations. Everyone always complained that the Izzet couldn't manage public works well and the Azorius couldn't judge a hearing until at least half the jury died of old age, but joining a guild was a way to ensure a future.

That future may be Niv Mizzet's next snack, but it could also be free education, assured job availability, and affordable accommodations. If you had what it took, be it the smarts to join Simic or the mettle to tangle with the Rakdos, your guild could offer opportunities that were hard to get as a guildless.

Jace rolled his eyes. "There's a few problems with that advice." Even if he wasn't the Guildpact at this current time, there was no way he could affiliate with any single guild. Such blatant favoritism would certainly cause problems at the next Guildmeet. Jace slumped and rested his chin on an arm propped on his knee. That was assuming there ever was another Guildmeet.

Jace looked to Ral with disbelief as he heard the other licking his fingers and wrinkled his nose. "How can you eat this fungus so fast?"

"What, gadva mushrooms? They're a staple of Telelia," Ral answered incredulously, then grimaced and looked away awkwardly.

"Telelia?"

Ral got up and cleaned his hands, mumbling over his shoulder," Forget I said anything."

To take his mind off his own bumbling existence, Jace set to getting ready for bed.

With a flat expression, Ral set to gathering a few of the things he'd bought today that he had yet to touch. Jace watched him curiously from across the room as Ral began to set up some kind of assembly near the bed. Ral was making some adjustments to one of the small devices as Jace walked past, making his way to the bed and letting himself fall to its sagging mattress. 

He hated living on a budget.

"Don't care if you move or not, but I'm sleeping here," Ral informed Jace as he approached the other who'd already got comfy.

Jace cracked one eye open and looked up to Ral with befuddlement. It had become so established that Ral would sleep in a chair, he hadn't even thought to ask before taking the bed. He noticed that Ral lacked all of his normal gear, and looked pretty comfortable with this. Jace found himself even more perplexed.

To make his point, Ral dropped to the bed with abandon, the bed protesting with a creak that threatened nearing snapping. Jace stiffened as Ral's arm landed across his stomach, but kept silent. Pulling the bed's sheet over to himself to claim it, Jace was a little relieved that Ral went along and let him have it.

"Try not to give me another nightmare, huh? It was bad enough while I was awake," Ral said, his tone light and suggesting he was joking.

Jace however, curled up on his side, and faced his back to Ral. His voice was quiet and embarrassed as he mumbled," Yeah, I'll try not to." The arm around him pulled back so the hand could squeeze his shoulder.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. I was just trying to, I don't know, make light of the situation."

"Sorry."

He could hear the annoyed eye roll in Ral's tone of voice as he said," Stop apologizing."

Jace pushed himself halfway to sitting so he could deliver a hurt glare. It didn't work like that. He had spent so much of his life doing such awful things and never being able to bring himself to apologize to the faces of those he stepped on. He had hurt so many people and crossed so many lines, and he had never been courageous enough to apologize. 

Breaking free from the Consortium had allowed him to begin. He wasn't sure if it was quite healthy how much he felt he had to apologize and how often he did, but how many people had their lives destroyed or taken because of him existing? He could never apologize enough; he could never do enough to make up for it all.

He was sorry all the time. He failed Kallist. He'd never felt good enough for Liliana. He failed Kavin. He wasn't the one that Ravnica wanted, and he questioned if he was any good at being the Guildpact everyday of his existence. He doomed Zendikar and then took his sweet time saving it. He assaulted Liliana's mind in her own home on crazed delusions. His insistence that she help a plane she had no ties to lead to Tamiyo losing her story that was so important to her. 

While he drew out in his mind all the reasons he had to apologize constantly, Jace had held the glare for only a second before slinking back to his resentful, turned back. 

"I didn't mean to—Agh, nevermind." The bed moved as Ral must have turned his back to Jace as well. 

An uncomfortable silence settled, and neither was willing to be the one to give in and break it. Not for a long time anyways, until Jace spoke up softly," I'm sorry if I do share a nightmare with you. I don't know how that works."

"What do you mean?"

Jace couldn't bring himself to answer. How did he admit that the only one he'd ever shared a bed with had possessed such a twisted mind she could lie to him at his best and he was none the wiser? How did he admit that his solution over his life had been to isolate himself and it was so bizarre to have to deal on a regular basis with people who _cared_ and forced their way into being there for him?

Instead of dealing with any of that messy material, Jace asked," So is Telelia your hometown?"

"Telelia is none of your business."

"I was just curious."

"Fine, whatever. I grew up in that cesspool and couldn't wait for a way out."

Jace almost apologized, but he thought better of it. "I don't much like my stay in rural Ravnica either."

Ral rolled over and commented," Huh, I thought you were going to try and encourage me to embrace my roots or some bullshit."

Jace could feel the other looking at his back, but he wasn't ready to face another sharing his bed. "I can't even remember my roots. I can't say if I'd embrace mine if I did." Something told him he wouldn't.

A few silent seconds passed before Jace piped up again. "So did you leave to join the Izzet?"

"Among other things, yes."

Right, the small district with small people. How could the commoners of Telelia spare time to encourage strange magic they didn't understand when they were just trying to scrounge enough to survive day in and day out? 

Jace imagined it had to be hard on Ral. He knew first hand how hard it was to go through life with a power that others feared and derided. Trying to figure out how to information seek verbally, Jace found it really tiring just trying to think of questions and how Ral might take them. It was so annoying to Jace how they were both secretive people, but Ral was so much better at it. It seemed like Jace was always giving away things about himself, but he knew next to nothing about Ral.

A bony knuckle was pressed into Jace's back, and Ral irritably mumbled," If you're going to ask something, just get it over with already. I swear if you wake me up with a question—"

Jace chickened out and avoided Ral's history, instead asking," So those devices you set up let you go without your gear?"

Ral stifled a laugh at Jace's clear avoidance and answered," Yeah. I haven't been getting any sleep since Emmara's. Needed to set them up." 

Crashing in a chair with his gear on was definitely not preferable, and after the few nights of sleep in Emmara's basement, it had been torture to return to such an uncomfortable position to rest. It had been easy to get out of bed that morning, not because he was well rested but because his shoulders and lower back were so sore. "They should get me about eight hours or so sleeping. Shouldn't be a problem unless…" He cut off sheepishly.

Jace groaned and complained," I'm sick of sidestepping every conversation we have. Yes, I could lose control and send over some gods' awful vision of an eldritch god and get myself fried. I know."

He pulled the sheet tight around himself, moodily closing his eyes and deciding he was ready to sleep. A few moments later though, he acknowledged he should at least half heartedly meditate before sleep. It might suppress his disrupted sleep that seemed the most likely to lead to shared dreams.

Sometimes when he was already uncomfortable and upset, he hated meditating. The irony wasn't lost on him, but the effective style of meditation he used now was thanks to someone he loathed thinking about. He scratched at his left shoulder absently, fingers digging into the scarred flesh beneath his shirt.

"Jace. What's wrong?" Ral's affect was flat, concern losing to annoyance.

"Nothing."

Ral rolled his eyes. Jace couldn't have sounded more sullen and childish if he tried. "You always do that… scratching thing, when you're upset."

"I what?" Jace belated realized what Ral was talking about and stilled his hand awkwardly. His heavy cloak had always been enough pressure; now he had to compensate. "Whatever, everything's fine. Just go to sleep."

"Make me," Ral goaded.

In snap impulse fueled by his frustration, Jace used a weak sleeping charm on Ral. It was countered with a rush of blue mana that was so plentiful here, and Jace didn't bother canceling Ral's spell.

"That was rude," Ral snapped.

" _You're_ rude."

"Ooh, nice quip."

Jace rolled over with an exasperated groan and looked Ral in the eyes with smoldering vexation. What happened to the caring man that had held him until he stopped shaking earlier that evening? His nettled expression fell to curious as he saw the contemplative furrow that afflicted Ral's brow.

Ral's eyes flickered to Jace's then away, and he licked his lips nervously. "I hated Telelia. It was a little backwards district that didn't appreciate people standing out."

After the shock that Ral had brought it up on his own, Jace asked," How so? What was it like?"

Ral spoke brusquely as he answered," Stifling. Everyone knew everyone and I unfortunately was no exception." He frowned as he thought back to Telelia, something he did very rarely. "I'll probably never go back."

"What about your family?" It was out of Jace's mouth before he could help it. 

"They've written to me a few times."

"But you've never written back?"

Ral tsked and muttered," No."

"What if they—"

"Stop talking like you know what they're like. I owe them nothing. They couldn't even protect me from—You know what? I shouldn't have brought it up." It was Ral's turn to sourly turn away.

"I'm sorry, Ral. You're right, I don't know them. I shouldn't be making assumptions."

Ral didn't fight that apology.

"I guess I've just always been curious what it's like to have a family," Jace continued.

That chilled the air.

Ral looked over his shoulder and spoke quietly," You got no memories before Ravnica, right? Well, maybe that's for the best. What was so big it caused you to planeswalk?"

Jace had a few memories, well, pieces of them. None of them contained any family though. He had moments like drinking tea, and a few big moments like clawing for his life to not fall to his death, but nothing that indicated the status of his family.

Jace begrudgingly said," I don't know. It hurt though."

Ral shifted to his back so he could easily look over at Jace.

"Not physically," Jace elaborated," but it really tore my mind apart. I was left reeling, and my head didn't stop aching for over a week." It hadn't been the debilitating migraines he'd had since, but it had been a spiking pain that settled into a dull throb like pinching your finger in a closing door.

"We've got strange lives," Ral commented as he looked up to the ceiling.

Jace hazarded a grin as he laughed over," You don't say. I doubt many people get stuck decades in the past."

"I mean our pasts. My ordeal and whatever happened to your mind, not exactly normal, you know?"

"I think that's the case for most planeswalkers." He grew silent as he thought of his friends. Chandra had accidently shared most of her spark ignition with him, and after Innistrad, he had a good idea of what Gideon must have gone through. Liliana was anyone's guess, but he figured she hadn't lead an easy life to become as powerful and conniving as she was.

"I haven't met many. You. The Boros one. I've talked to a few passerby's that have come through Ravnica, but I mostly keep to myself."

That he even included Gideon as having met him gave a good impression of how little Ral sought out others like himself. Jace was reminded that Ral didn't really like planeswalking a whole lot, or the very least, thought very little of Jace doing it so often.

Pondering the insane travels he'd been on because of his working with or for other planeswalkers, Jace commented," I've met as many planeswalkers I hope never to see again as I have friends. Some in between. I've never met a 'walker who seemed normal." To be entirely fair, that was the same of most powerful mages.

"Hm." Ral turned again, decidedly looking like he was actually trying to sleep now.

It was hard for Jace to sleep at first, Ral's constant shifting breaking the necessary calm Jace required. As time wore on though, Jace began to take comfort in the other's obvious presence. Ral moved a lot, but one thought resonated with Jace and caught his sleep addled brain off guard, _he's staying here_.

They'd been in many disagreements over the past few weeks. Arguments about how best to compensate for fluctuation in the time stream, arguments about how to approach experimenting with timewalking, arguments since they had found themselves trapped here, and arguments about how best to get themselves back to the present—they had been through a lot, but Ral never threatened leaving or implied he'd be better off alone.

He was one of the few people that Jace felt _safe_ with, Jace realized as he sleepily curled towards the other, not entirely aware of his actions. A pang of missing home—the Gatewatch, he recognized had become home—hit him in the chest. He missed his home and he missed Lavinia and work as much of it as there was. He missed Emmara as the dependable friend she'd become, and he missed Chandra, the enemy that had become a good ally and surprisingly thoughtful friend. He missed Gideon—

Jace curled an arm around Ral, both of them too far into their slumber to realize what was happening. He pressed his forehead against Ral and hoped against hope that his feeling of security wasn't imagined. A sick feeling threatened to break forth, but Jace reminded himself that Ral hadn't left him yet. They were going to get home together.


	13. Chapter 13

Jace came back late, having spent a whole day exploring for lack of something better to do. Walking around the Simic district had been interesting when he put it in the frame of observation. He'd found himself a journal and begun taking notes, old habits that weren't even his refusing to die.

First he'd visited the market, a sad excuse for produce making him almost appreciate the mushroom sandwiches they were forced to eat here, then he'd been off to the nearby breeding grounds. It had been a few simple charms to get himself let in. It had become apparent why everyone stared at them yesterday; they were fully human with no experimentation on their genes whatsoever.

Ral was bent over his work, sewing and taking the time with every stitch to make a precise seam as true as one would with a proper machine. Ral's hands were shaking slightly with exhaustion, and Jace could feel the soreness radiating off the man. A natural hunch had taken root long ago from his daily wear of all of his gear that still held without the heavy equipment, and the trifling pain that it caused was exacerbated by the tense curl of his back to keep the sewing going smoothly.

Jace sat on the bed inspecting one of the lightning rod devices and came to the conclusion it wasn't fired up like last night. Huh, so Ral could go without any dampener if he was calm. The storm mage was oblivious to his attention, and Jace didn't feel the need to disturb him. Instead, he quietly picked at his sandwich, pouting that he would have to eat fungus for every meal for the next few days.

Ral hadn't even noticed Jace come in with food. He was so focused on his project that he didn't even look up for ten minutes and only then realized Jace was watching him. The air charged immediately, and his hair stiffened straight up as he quickly crawled over and turned on the closest of the lightning rods.

"You can't go sneaking up on me like that," he complained.

"I hardly call knocking on the door and calling your name 'sneaking up on you', Ral."

With a disgruntled hum, Ral ignored Jace's comment and mumbled," Just turn on the two over there, will you?" He set to calibrating the rod by him, its soft whir as it came to life enough to calm the static that had been crawling down his arms.

"How—" Jace was cut off by Ral tapping his head in permission. Accepting the invitation, Jace peered into Ral's head and saw the process unfold. The best part about learning this way was that not only did he learn _what_ to do, but with such linked memories as Ral had for electricity, he got an inkling of _how_ and _why_ it worked.

Ral was back to sewing by the time Jace emulated what he'd read in the other's mind and successfully activated the devices. He came over and watched again, marveling at how precise the detail was. The panel was being sewn shut now, but at the end the sides was still not sewn together and the delicate wiring could be seen between the two layers of cloth.

It was almost a shame the heating element had to be hidden from view, the beautiful mizzium pattern mimicking the winding tattoo of Ral's arm in style and being even more complex in its repeating pattern that continued until Jace couldn't make out the individual mana-lines without leaning in close. "You've come a long way in two days," Jace commented.

Ral looked up and flashed a smile as he boasted," Almost finished with a whole leg." Okay, he was closer to half done, but if he pulled an all nighter that night and next, he'd probably finish on time.

"You like fractals," Jace observed, comparing the filigree mizzium to Ral's tattoo. "Did you design your tattoo yourself?"

Ral stopped what he was doing, looking to his inked arm with a lopsided smile. "Yeah, I did. I got it done the day I was accepted into the League. That was before I found out what an asshole our parun is to work with." Despite the harsh opinion, Ral still looked fondly over the tattoo, and though Jace worked not to read it, he could feel a happy memory spinning into focus in Ral's mind.

Returning his attention to the leggings once more, Ral neared the knee of one side of the panel he worked on. He'd been working non-stop since he woke up. There'd been nothing to distract him when he found Jace gone. They hadn't talked since last night.

Honestly, he was kind of curious where Jace had gone. He hadn't been wrong when he pointed out they had no money, and thus there weren't a whole lot Jace could have done while out. "Have a fun day?"

"I, um, started a journal. Just kind of full of little notes about the environment and stuff. I don't know. Habit."

"You usually keep journals?"

"Well, not my habit," Jace clarified. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Oh." Ral didn't really know what to say to that. Was that normal? Just having someone else's habit? It didn't sound like a habit picked up from someone over time. Realizing that the silence was dragging out between them awkwardly, Ral scrambled for something to say and asked," So what kind of stuff did you write down? It's wet and the sky's blue?"

"Uh, well," Jace opened his journal and clumsily paged through it. "There are several close by breeding pools, and each one specialized in different areas. One was breaking fourteen humanitarian laws, but I couldn't really say anything because I wasn't supposed to be there. Maybe we could leave an anonymous tip when we pass through the tenth precinct?"

"What laws? And you expect us to rat someone out? We're fugitives."

"I mean, yeah, but we aren't growing sentient life for organ harvesting."

Ral wrinkled his nose. "I never liked this era of Simic. Like, yeah, most guilds have their bad leaders over the years, but Momir Vig is just bad news. You watch your back for cytoplasts when you go gallivanting out there with your journal."

Jace nodded, but his stomach curled. He hadn't thought twice of going deeper into Simic territory, but the guild's darker history hadn't occurred to him. This was before the fall of the original Guildpact, before the mundane one was drafted by Teysa, when Simic had invented a way to surgically alter people without their consent and had shown no qualms in doing so.

"I didn't get a chance to see a cytoplast. I would like to sketch one if I did. I've only ever read about them," Jace said idly as he thumbed through the pages he'd filled to find the few sketches he'd made. His hand didn't hold the same skill as Tamiyo, but he was pretty proud of them anyways.

Ral moved on to more soldering of mana-bonds and mizzium as he said," I'd like to stay as far away as possible from those freaky hunks of ooze. I like my genetic makeup the way it is, thank you."

Once again they entered silence, but it wasn't awkward this time, Jace picking small pieces off his sandwich and forcing himself to eat as he read through the notes he'd taken and Ral doing the same thing he'd been doing all day long.

When he felt he could force down no more of the sandwich, Jace sighed and said," I think I'm heading to bed. Are…" He trailed off as he tried to think how to word it. "Are you, um, joining me tonight?"

Ral answered distractedly," Maybe for a short nap, but nah, I got to keep going on this."

Jace let out a sigh of relief and disappointment, conflicted as to which answer he'd been hoping for. "Well, don't push yourself too hard."

Ral stopped to look to Jace with a an unimpressed raise of one eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm a hypocrite. I know."

This was accepted with a good natured laugh and Jace weakly smiled. Crawling into bed was easy after how much walking he'd done that day, and it was made better still by having asked for another blanket so he didn't have to make do with just a sheet. For the first time in years though, it felt empty. 

Being in bed alone felt… Jace curled up under the blanket and forced his brain to stop thinking.

~~  
~~

When he woke, he saw Ral was still working. He'd shifted to laying on his stomach and propping himself up on his elbows, but he was still busily trying to overcome the deadline and finish on time.

Several empty mugs littered the floor around him, and a slight hum to the air clued Jace to the high caffeine content they'd had. This little inn was nice, if a little cheap, and Jace could picture Ral staggering into the mess at awful hours in the morning and the kind innkeeper brewing coffee for him or steeping gods knew what the Golgari supplied them.

Sitting up, Jace ran his hands through his hair sleepily, not even questioning the crackle pop of static that zapped him. The air was quite charged, and at some point weeks ago, that had just become normal to Jace.

When the electric field was as strong as it was now, Ral didn't have to look around much to know his surroundings, but he looked over anyways, chuckling at Jace's yawn that nearly split his head in half. "Long night?" Ral teased.

Jace rubbed at his eyes. "Yeah, worked my ass off while you were lazing about," he deadpanned back. He was reluctant to get out of bed, and being dead tired was only part of it.

Ral got to his feet, a bit of jitter to step as he began to pace. "I should probably take a break or something. Breakfast?"

Jace watched Ral walk around the small room, envying the energy he managed to have at this dreadful hour of the day. "Sure," he agreed, but his voice was flat, the lack of energy he had evident in his low register.

He didn't want more mushrooms. He used to like mushrooms in his food, but that was before every meal consisted of the same bitter flavor that the gadva mushroom was known for. It was bitter with vitamins, he'd heard more than a few people tell him. He didn't care. He'd rather eat mud, if the mud didn't taste the same bitter flavor of festering rot like the ground smelled of around here. They may be in Simic territory, but it lined the underdark and that was clear.

Jace hung his head and closed his eyes for what he thought was ten seconds tops but as he looked up, Ral was almost done buckling the straps of his harness. Ugh, mornings didn't sit well with him. How could Ral be so perky when he hadn't even slept? He wasn't completely human after all; the Simic could stop staring at him.

It took a bit for Jace to get ready, but they headed down the hall to the small dining room together, Ral still in his unusually happy mood. Jace was starting to get suspicious. Ral had been stifling giggles all morning. They each grabbed a morning roll and a plate of fried mushrooms with an egg scrambled in.

As they sat at the table, Ral broke down and asked," Do you remember your dream last night?"

Flushing and averting his gaze, Jace hastily lied," No."

Folding his hands and resting his chin on them, Ral purred," _I_ do."

Jace blanched, and while he had not been looking forward to eating before, now he had no appetite. He didn't particularly hide it well either, not even putting up the facade of playing with his food.

As Ral found he couldn't catch Jace's eye he laughed and dismissed," It's cool, Breyan. Lot's of people have dreams like that all the time." He'd thought it was funny, and to himself, he wouldn't lie a little pleasant in other ways, but apparently Jace found none of the humor in the situation like he did.

Frowning as Jace kept his gaze down, Ral tried to say," I didn't mean to—"

Jace looked back quickly and said," Just—Let's not talk about it."

Ral almost argued, but a flash of some emotion in Jace's eyes stilled his tongue. He stabbed a fork at his breakfast awkwardly. "Uh…" Dammit, he hadn't thought of anything to say yet. He cleared his throat and tried again. "So, you going to go exploring again?"

"There's not much else to do," Jace said, his voice small as he shrunk in on himself. 

Ral eyed him warily. He didn't know if Jace was alright. The other was just as prone to moody spells as he was, but he seemed to brood a lot easier. "Would you… nevermind," Ral gave up asking before he could even get the question out. Jace didn't seem very receptive to talking right now.

Jace looked gloomily, but a self-deprecating scoff later, he was smiling and muttering," I'm doing that thing I do, the thing where I close up…"

That was odd phrasing… but Ral merely replied," Well, you're not wrong."

"She's… She's an ex of mine," Jace forced himself to explain. With a nervous laugh, he tagged on," I can't imagine many relationships end worse than ours did."

"What? Broke up with you in a letter? Left you at the alter?"

Jace made eye contact with him and thought his way," _I found out that everything she ever told me was a lie, she'd set up my best friend's murder, and had been using me for a deal she made with an elder dragon._ "

The dissonance between his thoughts and bright smile caused Ral's stomach to coil, and he was almost relieved as the slightest mistake gave away it was an illusion. He also became rather alarmed. "Jace…"

"I'm not really hungry," Jace said, the words tight in his throat as he stood up and pushed his plate to emphasize his words. He scratched idly at one arm, missing the weight of cloak as he did daily. As he felt he could maintain a blank face, he dropped his illusion.

Ral moved to get up as well, but Jace held up a hand to halt him. "I'd rather have some time alone."

Scooting his chair a little to make himself comfortable once again, Ral stabbed at his food again. He tried not to look at Jace's completely untouched meal. "Sure. I'll be heading back to the room in like twenty." It might be good to give him a heads up in case he wanted to be gone before that.

Jace smiled wanly, and turned away before he needed to rely on illusions again.


	14. Chapter 14

The path beneath his feet squelched with every step, and Jace thought to himself that he'd never live in a marshy land ever. At least it was warm. He'd be rather annoyed if he was this soggy and cold to boot. He held the journal open in one hand, and a fountain pen in the other. It was running low, he'd have to refill it. 

Scribbling down another observation of the trees and proposing an idea how he thought they dealt with this environment, Jace filled another page. He was looking up while thinking about the best adjective to describe the bark of the tree he was observing when he froze with wide eyes.

Law enforcement.

Turning about as subtly as he could, he went back the way he came. He nearly groaned as he heard "Excuse me, sir" yelled out after him.

Stopping and turning back with a strained smile, he called back," Yes, officer?"

"What are you working on there?" the man asked, holding out an expectant hand.

"Nothing, just a journal," Jace mumbled as he complied and handed it over. There was no proof that he'd broken any laws in that journal. People were allowed into breeding grounds all the time. 

The officer flipped through the pages, happening to open to his notes on the legal violations occurring at the pool he'd visited yesterday. Jace internally groaned, planting his forehead in his palm.

"Ah, citing regulations. You wouldn't happen to be studying to enter the Azorius guild, would you?"

Jumping on the dangling excuse, Jace quickly nodded and said," That's right! My hieromancy isn't quite up to par, but I have every law memorized." He chastised himself for volunteering too much information, but tried not to make a big deal of it.

"Oh really? How about statute four, subsection seventeen, part C?" the officer asked smugly.

Jace's nervous breathing made way for perfect calm as he recited the desired ruling word for word. It seemed different than the last time he'd gone over the statute, like it had changed, and Jace wondered if he would simply parrot whatever the correct law of the time was.

The officer gave an impressed nod and said," You really do know your stuff."

Jace gave an over the top smile, relieved that hadn't called him out on cheating with the help of magic. He reached out to take his journal back, but the officer snapped the journal shut and pulled it out of reach. The pressed lips and serious slope of his brow told Jace he couldn't expect his journal back soon.

"I'm afraid I'm going to need to confiscate this to begin an investigation. We'll need it as evidence to get a warrant."

"But I was going to…" Jace's stomach sank as he realized his hard work was being taken from him.

"Taking you in to testify could speed things up—" Jace restrained himself from rolling his eyes. Nothing the Azorius did was fast… "but I'll still need to retain this journal until the breeding pool was formally fined or found innocent."

Jace reached out into the Azorius' mind, not surprised by the rigid adherence to law and order it contained. As he held the man's mind in his ethereal hands, Jace hesitated. Maybe he could talk his way out of the man taking his possessions, or he could just let the journal go. He didn't have to leap right to rearranging his mind.

With a contemplative frown, Jace retreated back to his own head. "I'm sorry, sir, but that journal can't be used in due process of law. As statute sixteen subsection three dictates…" Jace started speaking, and honestly, even he began to long for when he would stop, but he did it. He accomplished his goal at long last. The journal was being handed back to him and the officer was apologizing for his time.

As the small book was handed back, Jace grinned and held it to his chest. "You can still count this as an anonymous tip, though," he reminded the clearly chagrined officer.

"You should really apply for the Azorius," he sighed. "Your grasp of the law is outstanding. If you want to this summer, here's a reference to put on your application and give it a little more weight."

Jace accepted the card handed to him. He rocked it in the light filtering down through the trees, marveling at the crisp holographic of the card. "Thanks."

His words came tersely, clearly a little annoyed still that he'd been shown up by some guildless, as he wished," Have a nice day, and thank you for the tip, citizen." 

Jace waved goodbye and let out a sigh of relief. He didn't even really understand why this dumb journal was so important to him. It was just a bunch of useless collections of various facts and observations of random places and creatures in the Simic and Underdark border… but it _wasn't_ useless. It was leading to an investigation that might save sentient beings in an illicit breeding operation. And he'd saved his work without the use of his telepathy. 

He was practically thrumming with mundane pride and joy when he returned to the inn. Jace had been about to knock on their door before entering, but in what had become habit long ago, Jace scanned the other side of the door and found Ral was sleeping. It felt like the weary, unprepared sleep one literally fell into after pushing oneself too hard.

With a warm smile, Jace let himself in quietly and surveyed the scene. He was used to seeing Ral fall asleep at a work table, but this was still his exhausted slumber, arm protecting his eyes and drool threatening to drip from his chin. Jace laughed silently as he set his journal down and made his way over to Ral.

Whatever metalworking he'd been doing was now a crumpled mess of lightly pulsing metal, and Jace was glad it wasn't attached to the final product. The leggings were coming along quite nicely, he noticed.

Jace gingerly took the metal from Ral and set it beside other pieces of weirdly formed chunks of metal. Ral had probably been nodding off for some time now, judging by what Jace could only assume were mistakes, and mizzium was so receptive to mana, it would only take a moment's distraction to send it into bizarre cascades of mistwrought coils.

Ral mumbled in his sleep, unconsciously wiping at his chin with the back of his hand, but Jace wasn't concerned for a moment that he would wake up. His mind was so dead to the world in its deep sleep, Jace could probably summon an elemental and start a small blizzard in here, and Ral would just roll to his other side and continue on sleeping.

Jace brought over a pillow for him and coaxed him to laying back on it—he was not going to try and find out he couldn't lift Ral, even with his telekinesis, outside of an emergency. A light shock singeing Jace's thumb reminded him to check on the lightning rods after seeing to Ral. He grabbed the thin sheet for him since Ral always seemed to be warm and gingerly draped it over him and tucked him in.

Ral had earned a good rest. He sat beside him, not quite ready for sleep himself, and stared awkwardly for a few seconds before looking away. Ral's chaotic mind had begun to be a calming force—and a force of nature at that—that even when he wasn't looking in, as Ral was quick to remind him not to, Jace felt safe when he could feel it storming possibilities.

Even in sleep, it boasted such power. Jace found himself reaching out to Ral's head, like a moth to flame, and he hesitantly brushed a lock of streaked hair from Ral's eyes. The corners off Jace's mouth pulled up slightly as Ral leaned into the contact and pulled his blanket to himself cozily.

Well, he'd let him get some sleep. Jace embarrassedly pulled away and got to his feet. Grabbing his journal, he readied to make a few more additions about what he'd seen of the Combine today. 

As he flipped open to the page noting the legal missteps, Jace beamed at his work. He had helped the law without being recognized as a fugitive himself and he had used his words to get what he wanted. He hadn't had to depend on his mind magic or torture… Just talked to him.


	15. Chapter 15

"I finished," Ral muttered under his breath, then announced louder over his shoulder. Good thing too, because he was starting to black out from how sleep deprived he was.

Jace came over to look at Ral's work, the strange feeling of familiarity hitting him as he looked at the leggings once again. The first time he saw the color, it had stood out, and he had once again thought so as he saw the first two panels sewn together.

Now, the finished product really caught him off guard. The panels were sewn so that the fabric caught the light different on the front panels and back panels, appearing a burnished ivory across the knees and a dark slate hue underneath.

"Those look like…"

Ral looked up to Jace with a wry grin. "Her formal regalia? That was the plan."

Jace sat beside Ral, the hair on his arms raising. "We're supposed to be escaping history, not inspiring it."

"How about keeping it in order?"

Jace watched Ral carefully applying a magical gold leaf seal to the inside of the right ankle cuff. It was an insignia, Jace realized. Initials. It wasn't RZ though, as he would have suspected, but RK. He regarded Ral with a curious look and asked," What do you mean 'keeping it in order?"

"It's always bothered me," Ral began, backing away and holding his work out to get another perspective. "Teysa always crosses her legs or whatever, and likes to trace her ankle." He looked over to Jace who was clearly not following.

Pointing to his emblem, Ral continued," It always seemed so familiar, you know? Like, her tracing had a familiar stroke to it."

Seeing Ral gesture to the gold letters, Jace questioned," You mean she was tracing your signature? But we haven't gone back to the past until now."

"Well, clearly we already had been in the past. I saw her tracing my letters, inspired me to make this pair of leggings, she'll trace that very symbol seventy-two years from now, which will inspire me who goes back in time and makes the leggings. Stable time loop."

Ral grinned as he looked up to some higher force and bragged," Niv Mizzet only ever could theorize about time loops, but I achieved one!"

Jace was still looking at the gold lettering. Quietly, he pondered," But why RK?"

Ral's grin quavered, an embarrassed knock off of the previous joy. "Uh," he eloquently began," Just… Say it. Like it's a word…"

"R-K? What, Ark?"

Ral flushed, keeping his gaze averted. "Like an arc of lightning," Ral admitted, scratching the back of his neck. He had the countenance and vocalics of someone reiterating their unfortunate teenage rebellious phase that lead to awful outfits and over the top proclamations. "I was fourteen. When I made it to the city, I mean. I thought it was cool at the time. I needed to make a simple, recognizable insignia. So… Ral Zarek, R to K, um… an arc of lightning? It's probably stupid." He certainly felt stupid as he said all of this out loud.

"No, it's cool. And fitting," Jace assured him, trying to keep his smile less amused and more excited, but failing a little. He idly wondered what he was up to when he was fourteen. He was about that age when he got to Ravnica, probably a little older. 

Ral ran his thumb over the mark and pride bubbled in his chest once more. This was his first mark he ever made on the Izzet. Maybe it really wasn't as bad as his mind was making it out to be. At least he hadn't picked out a gaudy cloak he'd wear for the rest of time. "Thanks," he hesitantly mumbled.

A yawn broke his mixed pride and embarrassment, and Ral rubbed at one eye roughly as sleepy tears sprung to it. "We better get this to her, huh?"

" _You_ should get some sleep. We're going to need you for tomorrow much more than me. Let me take it to her," Jace pragmatically offered. Tomorrow was the Symposium, and Ral had hardly slept over the last week. He was the one who actually knew anything about Mizzium.

"Normally I'd fight you on daring to hand over my work without me… but… yeah…" Ral's eyes drooped. Another yawn. "Yeah, I'm ready to sleep."

Jace helped Ral to his feet so he could get to the bed. "Anything I need to tell her about them? Washing instructions or what not?"

Ral sank to the pillow, a truly happy smile forming as he rolled and pressed his cheek to its fluffy embrace. "No," he yawned back. "I ran through all that the first time through. I have a pretty good feeling she'll take care good of them."

Jace chuckled and set to getting ready to set out into the night. He gently folded the leggings, though he'd been assured they could take a beating and still be in fine shape. Many spells were weaved into these leggings of unassuming appearance. While the fine quality of the fabric that went into making them was apparent, nothing gave away that they were more than moderately insulated leggings.

All the wiring that Jace knew was hidden inside its layers didn't make it bulk or fold oddly, and Jace wondered how Ral could craft something so fine when he'd only ever seen the bulky pieces Ral wore everyday and several things that had intermittently exploded. Even the timewalking pieces added to the gauntlet were rather sizable.

Jace felt the other mind fall into sleep, and quickly rose a few wards to protect him in his absence. 

As the night air chilled his cheeks, Jace reflexively reached to pull up his hood and sulked when he had none. It was a long walk to the Orzhova district from the Simic slum they'd found themselves in, but Jace didn't have money to spare until after he delivered their end of the deal.

It was both a blessing and a curse that he set out after the moon had risen. Walking crowded streets and dealing with strange looks was exhausting, but Jace also found the potential to be jumped more than a little nerve wracking. He probably rose more charms than strictly necessary, but after an hour and a half long walk, Jace surely didn't want to put effort into fighting his way out of an incident.

The streets slowly became cobblestone, then worked their way to a finer material until under bored inspection, Jace began to wonder if he could pry out a stone and sell it for a zino or two. The few guards that were in Jace's way to Teysa's wing were easily persuaded to not notice his presence. A few had to be left sleeping at their post after proving a little too vigilant.

Teysa's mind was easy to find. Plotting and scheming like every other mind in the vast manor, its goals were entirely different. Many minds under this roof counted compulsively or sought to ascertain their wealth before sleeping, but one mind stuck out starkly.

Just reading. Quiet reading of laws and thoughts of how they could be carefully walked around. His hands tightened on the small bundle of cloth, a little worried of his reception at this hour. Well, he was here now and it wasn't like they could wait until tomorrow. He tentatively knocked at the door, or more accurately emulated the sound in Teysa's mind so he didn't alert anyone else.

He could hear her make her way to the door, and it opened cautiously. A look of recognition lit up in her eyes and she undid the chain that kept it from opening entirely. "Breyan Hildact," she greeted with a bow of her head.

"Miss Karlov," Jace returned bowing slightly more to show he acknowledged her higher status. "It required pulling several nights of no sleep, but Mal finished them in time," Jace said, holding out the finished leggings.

She took them and pinched at the waist to allow the legs roll and hang out. "These things are supposed to be enhanced and allow me warmth by just spinning the tiniest amount of mana into them?"

"Mal is an amazing engineer," Jace said, confidently reaching forward and grabbing a leg to fuel some mana into them. It was seriously a surprise how little mana it took to make them grow warm, and impressive design that kept them from ever overheating.

Satisfied with this display, Teysa nodded and gestured for him to come in with her. "I was beginning to think I was fooled out of ten zinos, but I look forward to trying these out. If they work, they could really help manage pain. More than a small blessing."

Jace didn't know what to say, not actually knowing much about what he was giving her. He couldn't sell its good qualities or offer how to get the most out of them. Oh well, as Ral had said, they had a pretty good idea that she would make good use of them. "Well, we're happy to help. I really hope you like them."

She grabbed a black velvet pouch and some papers off her nightstand and turned to Jace with a serious expression. "As promised, twelve zinos and entrance into the Mizzium Symposium."

Jace graciously accepted the offered bag and tickets. A lifting sensation afflicted his heart as their contract was fulfilled. He felt better immediately as he had money at his belt. 

"Anything we have to do with these, or just walk to the Symposium and flash our welcome tickets?"

Teysa regarded Jace for a second, clearly distracted from her scrutiny of her new garment. "That documentation should clear up any concerns that you don't belong on the list. I have you two as artificers from Favriel and have elaborated your experience in geotechnical engineering." Jace was pretty sure that Ral knew something in that field, he just hoped no one asked him any difficult questions.

"Thank you for your help," Jace said as he read over the paperwork. They were all set. Almost ready to return home.

"It wasn't too much work, but I expect a worthy reward in four year's time," she said, with a bit of a threat to her majestic voice.

"Of course. And as I promised, my information is honest," Jace insisted. 

"Out of curiosity… Just how do you know?"

"I can't say."

Teysa's sharp eyes narrowed, and she whispered," An agent, then?"

Part of Dimir? Jace hadn't even considered that as an excuse, though he felt he didn't have the presence for it. Actually, reflecting back on the few Dimir people he'd met, maybe he had the perfect presence for it. Unassuming until you were in danger was kind of their gambit.

With a good natured laugh, Jace joked," Now, I couldn't really tell you that one way or the other, could I?" His strained smile became a little more natural at her amused quirk of an eyebrow. Her expressions were always subtle but clear, and Jace found it disconcertingly endearing how little difference there was between her look of levity and murderous intent, and how sometimes they overlapped.

She gestured for him to come in, and he couldn't deny the offer. Closing the door behind them, Teysa slid the lock into place and turned her attention to Jace. She pointed to a chair beside her bed for him, and sat on her bed so she rested her head against the wall and her sore leg out.

Turning her head to him, she said quietly," You didn't even give my guards pause. Do you know the minimum number of guards you'd have to get through to get to my quarters? Seven. _If_ you knew the way from the onset and could avoid certain needless corridors.

"And I have a feeling you _did_ know the way through, and my whereabouts prior to your visit. Had you come ten minutes earlier, you would have found only my thrulls." He hadn't put out a search for her mind until he cleared the inner gate, so he had arrived at the right time out of pure dumb luck. He couldn't exactly go admitting that, though.

She gave him a calculating look as he resisted squirming under her imposing glare, and closed her eyes and shrugged. "Tea?" she offered lightly.

"Thank you, tea sounds really nice."

She really couldn't understand how much he appreciated such a small luxury as the tea she offered. It felt like home, his time of Ravnica where he'd made a name for himself and could afford to sip tea and not fill his stomach solely with fungus. As a thrull brought over a silver tray with a poured cup of tea and everything he could want to add in, he thanked them softly but earnestly.

Teysa eyed him, her mind adding a obsurficating docility to his actions that must cover some great assassin's skill. "Was this all a test? To see if I would make good on my deals? If I was willing to wait for your services?'

She really did think he was a Dimir agent, and Jace didn't know how he could dissuade her without making himself even more curious or raising more alarms. He lived a crazy life when he could only raise concern by not at least playing along with being an assassin spy. With weighed words, he carefully said," You filled our end of the bargain well, and that can only hope to maintain the fine reputation you hold."

"Attracting your sort is harder than one would think," she commented, mixing in sugar to her own tea.

"I think you'll find that my sort is never that hard to find. Maintaining secrecy while doing it belies the delay."

"But it's worth waiting for," she said as if echoing a caretaker's adage half heartedly.

Jace offered a wry smirk, and felt the wave of confirmation in her mind that she was assessing the Dimir's worth highly. Ugh, he knew that she would rely on them at some point in the future, but was he overselling them to her right now? Was he changing how she thought of them away from how she had thought the first time seventy years ago? Was he overthinking his import on her decisions regarding the Dimir?

A thought occurred to Jace that if he was changing anything, he could also change it so they never would change anything at all. Ral was only confident in his ability to fix his gauntlet the same any Izzet was that they could accomplish anything; if the possibility existed, then sure they might find it or an interesting explosion in the meantime. He had no doubt that Ral would eventually get them back, but how many misadventures would they suffer in the meantime and how long would it take? Would he be resuming his role as Guildpact unexplainably twenty years older? He ruminated over this and the plan that had hatched in his head while he drank more tea. 

Teysa seemed more casual than when he would know her better. The Teysa he knew was too regal to relax on a bed, but then, her eyes held the pout of a cloistered teenager. Indeed she was staring out her window at the high moon with longing. Her tea was all but forgotten at her nightstand.

She looked over when Jace finished his tea, signaled by a dutiful thrull offering him seconds but him politely declining. With reigned in embarrassment at her clear sulking, she picked her tea back up and sipped at its now cold sweetness. "Anything I can offer you before you see yourself out?"

"Actually," Jace began tentatively. "I have a rather odd request."

"Oh?"

"I wish to write a letter, but I'd ask you to deliver it a long time from now."

She gave a curious smile and asked," How long?"

"Around seven decades," Jace answered trying not to let on to his nervousness.

She laughed. "Oh, is that all?"

He nodded seriously like this was a perfectly normal request.

Her expression fell to critical scrutiny and she stared at him, seeming to measure his worth and how beneficial it was to oblige him as she did so. "Fine. Help yourself to the parchment on my desk there." She pointed to the back of her room.

A thrull lit the present candle as Jace approached the desk and he saw the elaborate stationary she must surely mean for him to use. A little guilt prickled in his stomach as he picked one piece of paper from the stack and grabbed a fine quill from her stand and filled it with ink.

He should consult Ral about this, but he had the opportunity now. If it worked, maybe he'd never even have to explain himself to Ral. Maybe they'd just never embark on this particular journey, and they could be more prepared for when they did. 

With quick, scrawling handwriting, he jotted down a simple message, [ _Now is not the 時. Watch before you 歩._ ] He substituted in words from Kamigawa for _time_ and _walk_ to bring extra attention to them for his future eye without being overt with its message. The rest was coded with a simple code that relied on the Kamigawa characters as the key. The simple, unassuming message should give little away even if someone took the time to decode it.

He straightened back up as he finished his short message, and Teysa instructed," First drawer on the right, you can find envelopes."

He opened the designated drawer and found extravagant envelopes that had gilded border designs to show off the class of the sender. Dipping his quill once more, Jace considered how he could be specific enough to get it to himself or Ral without giving away they were the timewalkers in the process.

Coming to a decision, he quickly inked in the date and recipient he wanted and slipped the short letter in after a tri-fold.

He walked it over to Teysa, and she took it with a discerning and curious once over of the front. With drawling levity, she asked," He who has tattoos on a singular face? Like yours?"

"Are you so sure these are tattoos?" With a smirk and a wink, Jace momentarily displayed a face devoid of markings.

She looked him in the eyes unblinkingly for a few seconds, trying to decide the truth, but gave up and continued inquiring about her delivery," In a building that doesn't exist…? Does House Dimir have oracles?"

"Dimir has many things, but I think you'll find it a long time before you get to ask much in the way of questions."

"My apologies," she responded cooly," Next time I won't ask if you want any tea."

"Niceties don't get you much outside of Orzhov anyways, but the tea was appreciated," Jace replied in a clipped mutter. If he was to keep up this facade, he couldn't accept any jabs of hers.

With a small, affronted sigh, she looked away and said," Your delivery has been accepted, and due payment received. _And_ I'm doing you a favor, asking nothing in return. You may see yourself out."

Jace bowed deeply, hating that it had to come off facetious when he was truly grateful for all she'd done for him, and said," Thank you, Lady Karlov. Until we meet again."

She looked back with a sly grin. "I'm sure it will be interesting."

She wasn't wrong, but he merely smirked and made on his way.

Huh, he didn't know what he'd expected, but he kind of guessed that all of this would disappear. That he would suddenly be reading the letter to Ral and that they would be reconsidering their journey. He guiltily wondered what he had done. 

He was no clockworker, able to peer into other strings of existence and choose the right path. What if he had put them outside of the real timeline? Was that how it worked? Or was every timeline as real as the other except from the perspective of a clockworker? 

It was easier getting out to the courtyard than it was getting into the manor, and Jace found his limited experience of the estate not a problem at all as he stole directions from the same guards that had let him pass through so simply the first time.

It was such a stroll in the park, Jace's guard was down as he made it to the alleyway that met the west end of the Karlov estate. All of his breath was knocked out of him as a tight grip on his throat sent him crashing into the brick wall beside him. Winded, he gasped, unable to make sense of his surroundings as he felt himself be dragged up the wall until his toes couldn't reach the grimey ground.

"Wha—" he tried to speak but the hand on his throat synched tighter until he stopped.

A deep, imposing voice asked menacingly," What intentions do you have with Karlov?"

Was this some overprotective relative, a guard he had failed to notice? His vision started to clear as the vice grip on his throat loosened to the point he could breathe slightly, if painfully.

"Vosk?" he gasped out in surprise. He recognised that piercing glare. He loathed the needle point teeth that could steal his thoughts. 

"You know of me? Then you know that House Dimir does not appreciate freelancers cornering in on their potential clientele."

"J-just needed a favor. Orzhov bribing. That's all." Every word was painful.

Mirko Vosk's unnaturally bright eyes burned through Jace as he narrowed them like a predator readying for his next meal. Jace thought with a sinking feeling that perhaps he _was_ being added to the menu. Lowering Jace just enough so his toes could tap at the ground, he purred," You exchanged information, and interesting information at that. Information that you don't know, but do know she will on a particular day in the future."

Was everyone going to dance around figuring out he was timewalking?

"Can't speak," Jace gurgled, and honestly his vision was starting to blur.

He was lowered the rest of the way to the ground and his knees almost gave out instantly. Swaying as he was let go, Jace jarred his wrist trying to steady himself against the wall. "I'm not trying to take your place. I actually encouraged your House during our last conversation. I just—" Jace coughed violently, interrupting his hoarse, broken speech. After a racking cough that left his ribs and back hurting, Jace continued," I just needed a one time favor. That's all."

"And why would you support House Dimir when you hold no affiliation?"

Mirko Vosk was just toying with him, enjoying his suffering, and Jace knew it. If he was really concerned, he would have just begun sucking the memories out of him already. Still, being offered the luxury of floundering wasn't something Jace would let go of easily. 

Straightening up a little, Jace tried to look Vosk in the and say confidently," I'm not stupid enough to get between her and you. When she mentioned Dimir, I knew I was out of there and never looking back."

Vosk regarded his victim with something akin to paltry amusement. The blood under his skin thrummed with the life endangered fear that Vosk had caused, and now it called out tantalizingly, but the vampire restrained his thirst. It wouldn't do to ruin his dinner and a show by cutting to the bloody part right away.

He watched the pathetic human fumbling over his words as he failed to catch his breath. His shaking hands clung to the wall, and he tried to hold his chin high in some confused train of thought that he could ever come off as anything but piteous. Vosk had to blink and blink again as his eyes started to play tricks on him. The human had lost his quivering stance, and now stood boldly—was he an inch taller now?

"I'm no enemy of House Dimir, nor am I threat on any alliances they choose to make," Jace projected as if he truly spoke. His throat was too raw to get more than his pained gasps and his body was too shaken to bear a commanding air, but illusions weren't held to such limitations. With glowing eyes, Jace finished coldly," But I will not hesitate to crush any person or guild that makes an enemy out of me."

"Interesting," Vosk breathed, deciding his show had run too long and it was time to drink what he desired to know and sip on the rest. The hot blood of the human gave away that what he saw wasn't real as the illusion grew a little too bold and took a step forwards while the sound of his rushing blood stayed behind.

Jace recognized as his facade failed, and tried the opposite approach. Instead of altering what was to be observed, Jace reached into the vampire's mind and scrambled his ability to perceive. This Mirko Vosk was inexperienced, and his mind wasn't as honed like his future self. It was a simple matter of reaching in and wringing what he found. In seconds, the world that Mirko Vosk knew was twisting and warping under his misinformed senses. Sight, smell, taste—all of his senses, ordinary and magical—were messed up.

With that as the momentary distraction Jace needed, he pressed forth ten illusions of himself and broke in different directions, not letting the illusions dissipate until they were out of sight.

Jace ran as fast as he could. His feet pumped beneath him and his breathing only got louder as it went from difficult to get air through his lungs to impossible. When he had some distance between himself and Vosk, he came to a lurching stop and held a hand to his crushed throat, screwing his eyes shut at the pain.

Swallowing and breathing felt like fire dancing through his throat, and he gingerly wrapped his thin fingers around the bruised skin, wishing he could call on any significant amount of healing magic. Standing still in a lone alley for couple of minutes made everything hurt a little less, and Jace decided just getting back to the inn safe and sound was his best bet right now, so he set off.

He'd planned on buying a ride back, but with Vosk on his trail, he wanted to be on foot so he could make his trail a little less predictable. It took him almost twice as long to get back, taking the effort to cover his trail with telekinesis and create false trails that would fall under any deep inspection but at least draw a little pause.

When he slipped into their room, he closed the door almost soundlessly, but Ral still rumbled sleepily," Jace?"

Jace sent back a soft "yeah" through an illusion of his voice.

"We're all squared away for tomorrow?" His words were hard to pick out, slurred together in his sleep thick voice.

"Yeah, all set," Jace said with unmoving lips.

Ral turned away, burying his face in the pillow and muffledly saying," Then go to bed and let me sleep."

Jace set their coins and papers to the side and undressed slowly. His whole body ached from the impact with the wall, the pain welling in his joints and screaming out as he moved. Getting his vest off hurt particularly bad, the stretching in his shoulders as he tried to manipulate the buckles making him have to take a slow, deep breath before trying again. 

Deep, regular breathing was his best bet at this point. Every breath was swallowing a sword anyways, he might as well get the most out of it. That was easier said than done though, as he could feel himself falling back to raspy breaths that did little for him as he stopped thinking about breathing. Ugh, he was going to be miserable tomorrow. 

Ral had moved over so there was room for him, and Jace dropped to the mattress exhaustedly.


	16. Chapter 16

"Jace, _Azor's Blood_ , what happened," Ral's voice rudely burst into his sleeping world.

Jace rolled away from the loud, annoying voice, his currently poor excuse for a voice squeaking and barely vocalizing as he grumbled. Light wasn't even streaming in through the windows yet; it had to be absurdly early. 

"Jace," Ral called softly, a hand gripping his shoulder and squeezing to get his attention. 

Jace's elbow and shoulder cried out but he ignored them in favor of reaching out in Ral's direction and trying to push him away. As his name was repeated a little more firmly, Jace grumbled again and sat up, rubbing at his eyes groggily. Getting the sleep out of his eyes, he glared at Ral through tired slits.

Ral's face was ever so slightly lit by a small sparking flame held above his fingers. He opened his hand more to allow the flames to spin into an electrical orb, which illuminated most of the room. Jace rose one hand half heartedly to cover his eyes.

"Your throat…"

"Fucking hurts," Jace eloquently finished for him. Yawning, which was a poor life choice that sent pain spiking through his jaw and throat, Jace allowed his sleeping brain to warm up more to the thought of being fully awake. "You'll never guess who I ran into after talking to Teysa."

"No, I won't. Let me in on the secret?"

"Hint, he ran the maze with us." Okay, that may have been a strong hint.

"Fungus Troll? No…?" Ral rubbed his chin and guessed again," The vampire?"

Jace gave him an unimpressed look. He was just being difficult. He knew their names. They met together rather frequently and their names were always called to bring up the problems of their respective guilds.

Jace rubbed gently at his neck as he nodded. He tried to clear his throat and regretted it.

"I don't think he followed me back though," Jace croaked. "I was careful to cover my tracks and I left him pretty disoriented."

"We're going to have to cover up your neck," Ral said, a clearly worried line creasing in his brow. 

"Sorry," Jace said with a wince.

"Don't fucking apologize."

Jace nodded, feeling a little light headed as he tried to get to his feet. He walked over to the left over fabric they used for Teysa's leggings, and bore a thoughtful pout. It wasn't exactly a normal material for scarves, but there was enough of it. Grabbing it off the ground, he wrung the soft fabric in his hands as he ruminated over last night.

He was less upset with how terrifying it was than he was frustrated that it happened. He should have been paying more attention and been ready to be jumped by meddling vampires late at night. The pain was only physical; he wasn't afraid. Nope. An anxious shiver ran down his spine and Jace shook his head to clear his thoughts. He forced a jovially annoyed expression to light as he turned back to Ral.

"Just how many more maze runners are we going to run into?" Jace asked exasperatedly, then looked to Ral with a suspicious glance.

Ral held his hands up and said," Not me. I won't be born for almost forty years." Then, putting hands on hips, he laughed," And I hardly count asking a carriage to directly go to Tandris' personal estate as 'running into' her."

"Yes, well." Jace didn't have a good response to that and he blushed a little. He couldn't much remember the time leading up to the few day stay at Emmara's, but it made sense that he requested to see Emmara in his injured state. Brutalized and on Ravnica tended to mean seeking out Emmara's help. He would be lying if he denied already having thought to go see Emmara after this recent injury.

Ral came over and took the fabric holding it in front of him with a twisted up pout. It was certainly not ideal for a scarf, but he was pretty sure he could make it work. He set to cutting up what was left into long strips and braiding it loosely to show off the light and dark sides.

Jace watched Ral work, stifling a yawn for fear of how much it would hurt. Sitting back on the edge of the bed, he looked down to where the other sat and braided. His expression didn't exactly give off pleasant feelings as he asked," Why are we up so early?"

"The Symposium starts at the rise of dawn and ends well after dusk. Try to pack in as much science and fun into the day as possible, you know? And we don't want to arrive late. Late means long lines and long lines means subpar product by the time you get to the front. I need the very best mizzium they have to offer if I hope to cast the bearing right."

Ral had too much energy, Jace decided. He eased himself to lying on his side, snatching a pillow and getting comfortable. He felt marginally better prone; he was nauseous and lightheaded, presumably from difficulty in breathing, and so relaxing ever so slightly made things a little better.

"No going back to sleep. We're leaving in twenty minutes."

Jace wanted to protest, but found it wasn't worth speaking. He couldn't find the will to sit back up though, and he compromised by keeping his eyes open but dull and cast away. He felt Ral's mind turn his way, a gentle storm of thoughts curling over each other in his habit of thinking too fast to think about any one thing.

"Jace. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." It was more breathed than voiced.

"Jace." His name was said with an attention grabbing clipped tone. More length than was strictly needed drew out each of his words as he repeated," Are you okay?"

His eyes slid to Ral as he croaked out more loudly," Yeah." _I will be_ , was implied and didn't need voicing. They both heard it.

Ral took his finished scarf with him as he came and sat beside Jace. "If you need the day off, I can go alone. I know exactly what I'm looking for and—"

"No, going alone is dangerous," he interjected, then gave up pushing words out and switched to telepathy as he continued," _You were right, we shouldn't split up anymore._ "

"Okay." He pat Jace's shoulder softly, a reassuring gesture. "Let's go find something to eat then and we'll be on our way."

The way Jace grimaced at the mention of food told Ral he'd be the only one eating, but he didn't press it. Dry bread and overcooked mushrooms had been hard enough for him to eat without it being painful. He helped Jace to his feet and gave him the ugly but functional scarf, eyes trying but failing to not stare at the dark bruises that Jace quickly covered.

~~  
~~

The crowds were even more bustling than the Izzet market had been last. Jace kept close to Ral, body aching from the many people that had bumped into him trying to get from place to place. It was a giant convention of people all psyched over some dumb metal, and while Jace doubted he'd be this critical if he wasn't sleep deprived and in pain, he was starting to really find artificers claiming the mystical properties of this or that metal to be pretentious and annoying.

Of course he knew the very real magnificence and importance of metals like mizzium and etherium, but it didn't mean he had to acknowledge it or care right now.

Teysa had done her job beautifully. They'd given their names at the gate and been let in with no questions. Jace had feared having to prove his knowledge and how he deserved to be there, and the easy acceptance had been a great relief.

Ral had promised lines, and to Jace that meant order, but of course order didn't prevail in the home of the Izzet. Jace couldn't follow the crazy patterns they were traversing to get what they wanted and went into autopilot as he followed Ral who so obviously fit in he didn't need to be wearing his flashy crimson and navy clothes to be accepted as Izzet.

He conversed with lots of people, happily exchanging advice on engineering and magic weaving with mizzium. At one point, Jace almost reminded him that they were in the past and should be careful what they imparted on the temporal natives, but he decided Ral knew what he was doing. He knew small things like who was in conflict with whom and when mizzium would be standardly refined to a certain purity and what not… Surely he could handle whatever talks he was getting himself wrapped up in.

"Your friend sure doesn't say much," one man behind a booth commented, and Ral nervously smiled as he flashed a look at Jace.

"Mute. Tragic accident in the lab couple years back," he quickly excused, and Jace played along by lowering his scarf with the illusion of a nasty scar ripping across his neck and covering the real injury.

"Ah, we've all been there, haven't we?" the man asked with a knowing nod. "Lost my right foot in an explosion down by Nivix's boilers."

Ral sagely agreed, and Jace wondered just what kind of accidents he'd gotten himself in. The lightning scar that tore through his whole back came to mind, but Jace had never asked how he got it.

They were walking with some tickets of some sort that Ral had earned his way into, heading to a vendor room to claim an allotment of mizzium. Jace looked to Ral and thought over," _If you want to continue with the mute story, I would not argue. I have nothing to say to anyone here. I feel kind of useless._ "

Ral clasped his shoulder and laughed. " _Yeah, I can tell how enthused you are to be here. I've almost got what I need, but would you mind if we stayed a bit longer? Just an hour or so? An extra Mizzium Symposium is such an amazing opportunity._ "

The usually sarcastic and cynical man was clearly completely sincere in his excitement, and Jace smiled softly. " _We can stay however long you want. Just don't make me talk._ "

Ral gave him a thumbs up, then quickly pulled him in the direction they needed to go.

Mizzium wasn't only thing the Symposium had to offer, and once they were done with business, Ral eagerly brought Jace to the markets. It was a festival of sorts for all of Izzet pride, and the Izzet were pretty good at pride. Flags and banners and a plethora of other ways to display the already obvious fact one was a part of the Izzet could be bought, and festival games as crazy as the patrons littered the square. 

Jace came to stop at a little stand that sold clothing, his eyes catching a full cloak in a deep navy. Ral walked a few paces before realizing Jace wasn't following anymore. Coming back to Jace, he looked between him and the cloak he was staring at. He smirked. Jace was so predictable.

Jace was unaware of Ral's amusement as he reached out to feel the cloak. The fabric was smooth, a fine quality cotton twill that had quite a bit of weight to it. 

Ral flagged down the vendor and pointed a thumb at the cloak, asking," How much?"

Jace dropped the corner of cloak he was feeling, whipping his head towards Ral and protesting," We only have—"

"Can it, Squeakers," Ral dismissed with a side long glance, returning his look to the vendor expectantly.

"That? Fourteen zinos," she answered. "Though we have it in crimson with sky blue accents for fifteen."

"Fourteen?" Ral sucked air through his teeth with a look of, _no can do_. He rested his hands on his hips as he said," No inner lining and simple brass clasp? Ten would be pushing it for me."

The vendor was rightfully insulted by such a low haggle, but after a couple exchanges, Ral talked his way into twelve. The cloak was taken from its display and placed into Jace's arms. He looked guiltily at Ral. " _That was all of our money._ "

"Well, put it on," Ral urged. "Gimme a twirl."

Throwing up the illusion of a scarred neck and removing his scarf, Jace rolled his eyes, but complied in slipping it over his shoulders and clasping it in place. His vest had small clasps of its own that would hold it to his shoulders and keep the pressure off his neck should it be pulled in a strong gust of wind or the like.

Bunching either side of the cloak a little in either hand he raised his arms and draped out the cloak like wings, he looked down and was unable to conceal his smile. As he looked up to Ral though, his eyes were conflicted. " _We only had twelve—_ "

Ral quickly interrupted his thought with," _Does it make you happy?_ "

Jace hesitantly nodded.

" _Then it was worth it. We should be walking soon now that I have the mizzium, and our coin won't fetch the same value in the future._ "

Well, Jace couldn't fight that argument. 

Ral waved for Jace to follow him and said," Let's check out the Static Show."

Jace didn't know what a Static Show could possibly be—static itself was not explosive enough to entertain madmen—but he forewent asking in lieu of following and learning by experience. 

He sensed searching minds in the sea of people. Jace's footfalls didn't change in the slightest to give away he felt their presence, but he was alert and probing more detailed information as he felt them. Their minds weren't like the others, searching for the next cool thing and running overdrive with planned projects for the future. They were too ordered to belong to any proper Izzet guildmage and Jace didn't have to dig deep to find they had a goal.

With a small scowl, Jace looked over to Ral and warned," _We have company._ "

Ral wearily looked around as he whispered," What do you mean?"

" _Eight o'clock, two people are looking for us. They don't seem like law mages, but perhaps Azorius arresters more suited to our skill sets. They've been weaving counterspells for some time._ "

Ral sighed, a little disappointed, but then shrugged and said quietly," Well, I've seen my share already. It's been fun, but can't last forever, right? Head back?"

Jace shook his head slightly and responded with the mental equivalent of a sarcastic drawl. " _No, I think we should really stop and smell the roses. Maybe make a large show while we're at it._ " He exchanged a wry glance with Ral and gave a small lopsided smile as Ral rolled his eyes.

"Okay, smartass. Let's head to the north exit." With a serious gaze, he thought loudly," _West. From there we should be able to catch a carriage to the Combine slum we've made camp at._ "

" _Money?_ "

Ral looked back and shrugged with a nervous smile. " _We don't really need money, do we?_ "

Jace's brow grew creased as he groaned. " _Ral, we're already wanted for manslaughter and a violent escape from jail. We don't need to add fraud to the list._ " He shouldn't have given fake money the first time. Doing it twice would be even worse.

With an annoyed pout, Ral rolled his eyes. Jace had no scruples in deceiving to get his hands on alcohol, but suddenly drew the line at getting them safely away from people trying to incarcerate them? That it started to grow cloudy and misty was certainly a coincidence… 

Jace looked up at the darkening sky, and his mental voice had a huff to it as he gave in. " _Fine, I'll take care of it. Just get us out of here._ "

They weaved through people as nonchalantly as they could, trying not to betray they knew they were being watched. When Ral gave him the look, Jace rose an illusion of them heading north and cloaked them from sight. They only needed to fool the people they were directly beside, to part as if real people were coming their way, and the trailing law enforcement.

" _It didn't work._ "

Ral looked to Jace incredulously. " _What do you_ mean _it didn't work?_ "

Glaring daggers, Jace answered facetiously," _You know when everything goes like you planned? The opposite of that._ " 

He kept his gaze trained forwards as he contemplated what they could do now. They didn't have much time; the hunters were closing in for the kill. " _They must have been ready for my illusions, and now they know we noticed them. They're getting ready to apprehend us._ "

"Jace. Get ready."

Jace croaked out a single "what" before it happened. The whole world lit up, red mana burning the air and blue adding the crisp taste of brine. Only by peering directly into Ral's mind was Jace able to shield himself properly. 

The crowd around them dropped, easily over forty people fell to the ground, their muscles spasming from the residual current. A full circle of people, save two who stood out from the regular Symposium goers in their light blue and white combat clothes, now writhed on the ground.

Ral flashed a smile and waved, then hurled such a powerful bolt of lightning, it left the air it traveled through looking _wrong_ for half a second. The bolt was countered, a redirection of mana in the works, and Jace quickly stepped forward and dismissed their spell.

The smell of ozone only increased as the lightning successfully finished his course, and one of the guards fell to their knees while the other funneled white magic into their comrade. Glowing hieromancy encased them both and the reaction saved them. Helping the nearly fallen Azorius to their feet, they didn't slow their assault in the slightest.

The two of them swiftly channeled more magic Jace and Ral's way. The Azorius weren't playing anymore, these had to be some of their best mages in the order.

Unfortunately for them, they were going against planeswalkers.

"Cover me," Jace whispered as his eyes lit up. For this to work quickly, he couldn't waste time on maintaining his own shields. Ral did his best to keep the other mages' attacks from landing on Jace and he initiated some offensive blocking with his own magic.

It took a moment, the obvious strain on Jace and his target's face morphing into calm neutrality. Looking to their partner with impassive eyes, they drew their dirk and slashed at the hip where the leathers had a gap in coverage for mobility. Blood heralded blood curdling screams from the gathering crowd around their buffer of the previous fallen crowd, and Jace winced.

Ral had that look again, and while his memories of the few days were blurry at best, Jace had a sudden flashback to the warm Selesnya surroundings as Ral looked at him with uncertainty. He forgot he'd opened a link in their mind, never properly closing it because all that had mattered over the last half minute was the full on battle they'd found themselves entrenched in, and a rush of realization and some confusing emotion he couldn't begin to parse hit his mind.

Ral grabbed his arm and tugged him to follow. Jace followed without question. Together they ran off into the drizzly day, hoping to find a carriage that hadn't heard of the panic and that would take them to the Combine quickly.


	17. Chapter 17

They were able to get back to their room with little trouble, the downed Azorius drawing all the attention of the crowds when Jace warded them not to stand out.

" _Sorry we didn't get to stay at the Symposium as long as you wanted_ ," Jace offered awkwardly. They hadn't spoken on their way back, and Jace found it hard to begin a conversation now that they were calmly hidden away in the inn.

"Nah, it's fine. There'll be one in a few months once we get back anyways. I got what we needed, and that's the important thing." Ral didn't look up from his work, and Jace couldn't tell if that was because he was focused on what he was doing or because he was avoiding eye contact.

" _I wonder how long they'll continue to search for us after we're gone._ "

"I don't know," Ral replied," But maybe we'll be able to find reports in the Azorius archives. A little iffy what with the fall coming, but the Azorius were pretty good with keeping their files in order." He spoke distractedly, setting up the process that would be absorbing his time for the next day. 

His first trip through the Izzet market, he'd thought to pick up the chemicals he'd need for once he finally had the raw ore. Ral was certainly glad they didn't have to figure out collecting supplies after what went down at the Symposium. It was silent work for the most part, not needing the brute force many ores relied on for refinement, and the silence grew after their meager attempt at conversation.

The silence was moderately deafening.

Jace busied himself with taking apart the scarf Ral had made, slowly undoing the loose braid Ral had tied earlier. His hands needed something to do. The light grey side of the fabric gave Jace ideas as he laid one thin strip against the navy cloak he now wore.

"Hey, uh, we made a good team back there," Ral tentatively stated. He set up the first step, a corrosive process, and stood up and stretched, done for the next hour.

Jace diplomatically mumbled out," Yeah, our abilities work together well." He should have stuck to telepathy, he thought, as he rubbed his throat with a wince.

In truth, he did find their powers to complement each other. Jace needed time to work, and as more than a few people had pointed out, he couldn't take a hit. Ral provided space; few tempted to get closer to a man that could electrocute them without a second thought. They could also counter for each other, and Jace used his illusions to great effect in battle to set up strikes.

They did make a good team, but Ral was still leary of his powers, and Jace wasn't really sure why it bothered him so much, but it did. Many people distrusted mind mages. That was nothing new. Even Chandra had made recent remarks here and there, pointing out the shaky ground their comradeship had began on. That his powers were inherently deceptive.

Jace came to the realization as he ruminated further with Chandra in mind. The main difference was that she wasn't afraid of him and Ral was. She was abrasive and headstrong, but Ral was paranoid and cynical.

"I know what you're thinking," Ral said quietly. 

Jace was a mature adult. That's why he made a big show of canceling out their hearing. Even the ambient noise of the nearby waterfall was gone. Ral continued speaking anyway, glaring at Jace as he did so.

With his forced over-annunciation, Jace could read Ral's lips pretty well, but he made a display of looking away.

Sound crashed back with Jace's objective yelp at a small bolt numbing his his knee and lower leg after a tingling pain. He grabbed his knee and flashed a teeth bared grimace of annoyance Ral's way. To rub in the salt, Ral took his turn of displaying inattention.

Jace exhaled angrily and flew into stomping across the room to grab his journal. 

"You're not going out," Ral said somewhere between amazed incredulousness and concerned questioning. "After we were just attacked by Azorius Arresters?"

Jace chose not to beat around the bush as he ground out mentally," _I need some time away from you._ " He couldn't spend another minute in Ral's presence without some relief of personal time.

"Fine, go out. Get yourself killed. Ruin Ravnica's political stability because I'm a sack of shit."

" _Don't make this about you_ ," Jace thought with a scowl. " _And maybe I'm sick of only needing to survive because I'm useful to people._ "

"I didn't mean—"

Jace slammed the door on Ral's protest.

Ral pursed his lips and glared angrily at the door, but a very different emotion shivered down his spine.

~~  
~~

Jace didn't return until well after nightfall.

He realized how much of a mistake this was as he received a small jolt upon entering their room. Ral had looked up with a start at the door opening, and he couldn't help it as he broke from his pacing and marched on over to Jace with shaking fists. "You idiot," he called out.

Jace shook his head, getting over the briefly disorienting shock, and looked to Ral with confusion. "What—"

"You could have been found by the Azorius or the Boros. Or taken out by the Dimir. What were you thinking just leaving like that?" He pushed against Jace's shoulders lightly, trying to express anger, but coming off more concerned.

"Well, I _didn't_ , and I can look after myself," Jace said a little irritably, backing away from Ral's sparking hands. He cleared his voice, hoping it wouldn't break the next time he tried to speak.

"Not saying you can't, but you have to admit now is a pretty dumb time to be going off on soul searching walks all alone. We're almost home free."

Jace gave a small huff as he pushed past Ral, brushing his cloak like Ral had gotten it dirty when he pushed him. He might have, Jace noted, observing the several chemical burns in Ral's shirt as he passed and the acrid smell in the air.

"I don't really feel like talking," Jace swiftly interjected as Ral breathed in to say something. "I'm going to bed."

Ral ran a hand through his hair. _Frustrated_ didn't cover how he annoyed he was that Jace kept dodging expressing how he felt. It wasn't like he was open either, but Ral felt he was less likely to just disappear on Jace and never explain why. He had other self-destructive ways to handle his stress.

"I should probably get some sleep too, as much as I want to stay up and finish this. Can't do any more for another five hours anyways," Ral murmured, looking around at the apparatus he'd set up and checking once again that everything was going smoothly. Mizzium was one of the more stable materials the Izzet worked with, but when things went wrong, they went catastrophic.

"Whatever." Jace's voice was clipped as he set to removing his cloak and vest. He paused as he stripped the cloak and held it in front of him in tight fists. He exhaled, willing the pent up affronted aching to give up hold of his mind. "I'm sorry," he started softly.

"You should be." He'd been waiting for Jace to come back for hours, though he didn't want to admit it.

"I'm sorry I stayed out so long," Jace clarified, feeling the need to be distinct from apologizing for merely leaving. "But I really needed some time to breathe. We could both use that."

"I mean, you're not wrong," Ral flippantly agreed," But the Boros don't really care if you're just trying to get a moment's rest from your insufferable partner in crime. They're still going charge first, and well, a charge from a wojek doesn't always lead to questions later."

Jace kept quiet as he slipped into bed. He could feel his hair slowly rise on end as Ral approached and steeled himself for sharing a bed with someone. The bed sank with Ral's careless falling back into bed. He wondered how he'd sleep on his own again after all of this. Having that rolling storm beside him scared away his nightmares, and the arm that often found itself curled around Jace by morning made the mind mage feel safer than any ward could.

It still unnerved him as he anticipated everything; sharing a bed seemed so intimate to him. His stomach found itself in his throat sometimes, but it was always worth the calm it brought.

Jace froze in surprise as Ral's head came to press gently between his shoulders, the tingle of dancing sparks confirming that Ral really had just pressed that close. After a few moments, Jace tentatively asked," Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, of course."

The assurance was less convincing as a coarse hand slid over his shoulder and squeezed gently. Jace's lips pressed tight as he restrained himself from reaching in and plucking out what was wrong.

"Ral…?" He was growing truly concerned as Ral kept up this concerned and emotive display.

His only answer was to rub his thumb back and forth slowly against Jace's shirt, dragging the collar of the thin shirt as he did so. "I thought I may never see you again," Ral breathed softly, his voice barely carrying to Jace's ears despite being pressed up against him. "And I wouldn't have just been upset about Ravnica's loss."

Jace's stomach turned.

_I'm sorry that I make you feel like that_ , was on the tip of Ral's tongue, but he didn't know how to say it.

Unsure of how to console Ral, or at least let him know that everything was alright, that he wasn't still mad, Jace reached up and twined his fingers with Ral's. He got a small jolt for his trouble, and after taking a second to blink away the numbness, Jace murmured," I shouldn't have gone storming off."

He paused, waiting for Ral to say something. When he didn't, Jace hesitantly joked," That should really be your department."

Ral squeezed Jace's hand appreciatively, pulling his head away and settling for scooting closer so his chest now met Jace's shoulders. The hand snaked forwards and around, Ral's arm securing his chest and holding him tight—until he was mentally shoved away so hard that he fell off the bed startled and crackling with arcs of lightning. It could be no small coincidence that a clap of thunder sounded overhead.

Jace sat up, it being more than a little difficult with how his lower back was seizing with the electrical current. "Krokt—No, I—Krokt—" 

He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hands to them so hard he saw colors before his eyelids. He didn't mean to react like that. He couldn't help it. Throat already inflamed, it felt it was closing up as a cry left him involuntarily. His arms hugged his chest as it got hard to breathe, his hands bruising into his own arms.

Ral was back up in a heartbeat, holding his hands up like he was approaching a nervous animal. Electricity arched between the two outstretched arms, and he eyed his lack of control wearily, reaching for a belt that wasn't there and cursing rather obscenely under his breath.

Maybe he'd have more luck quieting his energy output if his brain hadn't been just assaulted so hard that his surroundings were moving beneath him, but he found his priorities sorting Jace to the top. What had he done and how could he fix it?

"Y-you did nothing wrong," Jace forced out, his voice even hoarser than when he'd woken up that morning. "I just…" Another cry left him. He couldn't look up. He couldn't meet Ral's eyes. "I'm fine," he tagged on, repeating it under his breath for good measure.

"Yes, because most people who're fine regularly cry out and swear in the middle of the night," Ral flippantly pointed out. He was quite proud of himself for being able to spin such a coherent sentence despite of how blitzed he felt. 

Ral worriedly looked at his his hands and thought that in order to help Jace, he might have to help himself first. The static in the air had his hair standing up straight, and Jace's was almost just as bad. He could feel electricity running all across his body, and worried it might shock Jace even worse than he already had tonight should they come too close to each other.

"I need my gear," Ral slurred out decisively, the sound of rain suddenly pounding on the roof. He was doing everything he could to keep his whirling mana away from Jace, but the lightning rods weren't enough.

He staggered over to the corner he'd left his stuff in, and with great difficulty sat down beside the burnished mizzium equipment he'd long ago come to rely on. As his fingers pressed softly against the cold metal, Ral's mind drifted to the day he made his first model. He never formally had a mentor, but if he had to name someone, he would have chosen the old geezer that let him live in his basement during the winter while he was a street rat.

They never had lessons together or anything, but young teenager Ral had learned so much from him just by observing and working in the same shop for a couple of months. The guy had given him the idea to make a capacitor for himself like he would to protect a delicate machine from being overcharged. The population of Ravnica was his delicate machine and he was the dangerously over producing generator that—

Ral shook his head, feeling out of it. Jace must have hit his mind harder than he thought. Ral blinked, then remembered with panic that he was supposed to be getting his gear on to protect the very squishy mind mage he roomed with. His heart hammered as he realized his hands were shaking too much to even pick up the harness correctly.

He flinched as a hand came to rest on his shoulder, and looking up with confusion, he asked," Jace?"

"I told you I was fine. Let's get your gear on, okay?"

Indeed, Jace appeared to be a hundred percent okay. Wincing from the stress of talking, maybe, but Jace was standing beside him with a small smile.

"Just breathe," Jace said softly as he knelt beside Ral and placed a steady hand over Ral's, inspiring the rough fingers to curl around the leather and bring it closer. "That's it," Jace encouraged.

"Real f-funny," Ral stuttered out, his head whirling from how shallow his breath had become and how much mana he was expending," You. Telling _me_ to breathe…"

His hands were so practiced at getting his dampener in place, with a little help getting started he just flew into fastening all the belts and had it in place in no time. Jace reached forward and adjusted a dial so the dampener kicked in at full power. When had he learned how the assembly worked…? As Ral took the time to ponder this, the illusion fell apart in front of him, and he realized he actually had his hand on the dial.

His head snapped back to the bed, where Jace now laid.

Getting to his feet was tricky, and Ral nearly fell right back down with the awkward weight of his dampener and capacitor.

"Jace?" No reply. " _Jace?_ "

"I'm—fine," Jace laboriously breathed, cracking open an eye to stare up at Ral. Really he was. Had it not been for the shock and already injured throat, he wouldn't have degenerated into the unbreathing mess he was right now. He'd just been… startled. " _I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to ruin everything._ "

"Jace," Ral's voice hitched. "You didn't… _ruin_ anything." He was still breathless, but at least it didn't hurt like it seemed to Jace. Even with everything running full power, Ral looked down at his hands that still arched with crackling energy. It wouldn't be any serious amount, maybe 10 milliamps at the most, but Jace didn't need any more of his help.

" _Sit by me_ ," Jace requested.

"But I—"

Jace didn't have the energy to be discreet and simply replied," _You don't think it's dangerous anymore, just worried I might be uncomfortable with you being by me._ "

"Hey, these are my thoughts!"

" _So you can't even deny what I'm saying._ "

Feeling a lot better as he got distracted, Ral argued," Oh, I think you'll be thoroughly impressed by just how well I can dispute my own thoughts."

Jace opened his eyes fully so that he could manage to roll them.

Despite his spoken stance, Ral gave in and sat down tentatively, so far on the edge of the bed it would be easy for him to fall off by just leaning wrong. When a hand was held out expectantly, Ral gawked at Jace like he was insane, but he didn't feel up to disappointing him. He nervously took the proffered hand, his calloused one sliding into his smooth hand with ease. A flimsy barrier had been raised and few shocks got through, though Jace didn't show any evidence of minding the ones that did.

Jace cleared his throat painfully then said aloud," That, um, was not how I expected things to go. Sorry." Breathing had gotten a little easier, and this was worth a little pain to say aloud.

"I mean, I hope not."

"It's just…" Jace ground to a stop, his cheeks reddening. He held Ral's hand tighter to give him the support he needed to sit back up. "I, uh—Remember when I said I had a bad break up?"

Ral _remembered_. He nodded, uncertain where this was going.

"That's how she used to hold me before—Well, I was just surprised, I guess, and, uh…" Jace scratched his head and gave a frustrated sigh. This was harder to explain than he thought it would be.

"Shit, I didn't mean to—"

"I know," Jace interjected.

Ral shook his head and said," I know you know, but I'm trying to apologize, which I don't do very much, so you should listen."

Jace nodded mutely.

"I didn't mean to upset you, I thought I was being rather sweet." Ral winced at his word choice. He had no reason to be _sweet_ with the Living Guildpact. "But obviously I made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry. I didn't know she held you like that. I'll avoid it, actually, I can just go back to the chair. We're almost back anyways."

"No," Jace said too quickly. Averting his gaze with his already red cheeks deepening in hue, Jace tried again," No, that's okay. I could take a night in the chair if you didn't want to, er, share the bed anymore." He realized halfway through he should have just stopped his offer after chair, but no, he had to fumble on through the rest and imply the truth. He _liked_ them sharing sleeping space.

It made it easier for him to escape nightmares when the roiling chaos of Ral's mind was so close to press in on his own.

"I'm not uncomfortable with sharing. I just figured _you_ would be after…" Ral trailed off.

"I'm the one who barraged your mind so hard you were sent to the floor."

"And I electrified you, yet again, _after_ wrapping my arm around you in a way that was clearly not cool."

Jace exhaled, letting his immediate retort fall away before asking exasperatedly," Why are we arguing about who makes the other more uncomfortable?"

"Because I can argue over just about anything," Ral answered without a second thought. He laughed as Jace retracted his hand to plant it on his own forehead.

Jace groaned and rolled to his side so his back faced Ral. "Let's just try to get some sleep. We're almost back to a time that I can afford sweet jam in."

"Jam," Ral scoffed," That's your idea of fine cuisine?"

"It's better than fungus."

That was fair enough, Ral weighed with a bob of his head. "I think I will take the chair, even after all our squabbling. I'm not taking my dampener off anytime soon."

"Oh." Jace realized just how disappointed he sounded and quickly tagged on," Yeah, no, that's cool."

Getting to his feet, Ral was quite glad that his mind had completely settled after everything. It made pulling the cheap wooden chair over easier as he wasn't lurching and seeing the floor seesawing. His mind was wired now with how much mana had rippled through him like being directly connected to a power line rivaling Nivix's. He highly doubted he was getting any sleep anymore tonight, but he had to put on a show for Jace. Nothing more out the ordinary was needed. 

It made an awful dragging sound as he brought it up to the bed's side, but it was finally close enough that Ral could plop down and lean forward how he was used to doing in his lab on a weekly, if not nearly daily, basis. The bed was too low to be a work table, but it made up for it in its softness. Even a crappy mattress like this one was more comfortable than a steel table. His arms folded and his head sank down to be cradled in them. No way he could possibly sleep, he thought irritably, one leg starting to bounce off to the side.

His hair began to crackle and pop as a hand ruffled through it, and Ral hummed questioningly.

"You need to sleep," Jace conveyed in a smoother murmur than he should have been able to, probably relying on the use of his illusionist skills.

"Can't," Ral mumbled back, not bothering to question how Jace knew he wasn't.

"Shhh…" 

The hand began to brush through his hair softly, soothingly, and a sense of calm overcame him. Ral felt an offered peace that he could never achieve on his own, and after a tentative moment, he accepted it, falling into deep slumber instantly.


	18. Chapter 18

They had left behind a very neat pile of things they couldn't take with them. Ral wrote out instructions on where to sell what, and what kind of price to expect from it, and Jace was rather relieved that it should fetch well over what they truly owed the poor innkeeper that had been so kind to let them stay on half of normal cost just because they spun a sad story.

After the mizzium had been refined under Ral's process, it had been a simple manner of shaping it how he wanted and popping out the old fried piece and inserting the new. They had a little mizzium to spare even, and Ral decided they should try to bring it with them since no hands on Ravnica should have been able to get this pure of mizzium yet.

As they readied for their walk, Jace adjusted his cloak nervously, wishing it was just the slightest bit heavier, and looked down at his journal he'd been writing in. After a moment's glance, his train of thought had been stolen. He couldn't leave it behind like he initially had planned; the clipboard hadn't survived their walk, but this had to. 

While they'd burned the notes, which had sensitive matters on it, Jace hadn't found the need to burn a collection of observations that anyone could have made of the Combine. They were just facts that the average Simic probably knew, but Jace realized as he gazed at it a little more deeply, it was more than that. How many facts had been lost to history simply because everyone assumed that anyone would know that obvious fact of life and no one thought to write it down? 

And… Jace brushed his fingers across the cheap leather cover… It was sentimental. He felt better when he wrote in it.

Undoing the buckles on his vest, Jace hastily grabbed the journal and shoved it between shirt and vest, quickly tightening the belts to accommodate for the small book. With that sorted, he quickly returned to Ral's side. "I'm ready," he said, grabbing Ral's tattooed hand. They hadn't actually expected Jace to join along for the ride the first time timewalking, and they hoped to eliminate the problem that he might not the second time by removing as much space from him and the magical device that allowed timewalking for its operator as possible.

"Alright," Ral said under his breath," Seventy two years into the future."

With confidence in just how hard he had to push his limits, Ral went full throttle and poured all of his innate magic into his gauntlet. His pull on his manabonds was extensive, and it was evident by how he sparked with energy despite so much of it being obviously channeled into his gauntlet, the implanted stones pulsing bright light quickly.

Jace braced himself against the tingling that soon filled his arm, and then there was no sensation.

As the room spun out of coherence, both mages were taken off guard by a familiar pull on their sparks. The spin of the room had no effect on them, but as they entered the Blind Eternities, it suddenly had inertia and sent them staggering in no direction at all and every direction all at once.

Raw mana burned at their unprepared souls, and their physical bodies felt like they were being ripped apart. Reminiscent of more than a few emergency walks Jace had weathered during his Consortium days, Jace immediately rose protection for his soul, letting the connections they had to all the planes draw in mana to shield him and Ral the best he could. 

The secret to surviving an emergency walk when one was lost was not to be picky. The first remotely familiar plane their spark pressed against, Jace pushed them into it. 

As could be expected, it was not a delicate entrance. They found themselves bashing into rockface, Ral bludgeoning his face and Jace finding his arm pinned between two points, then harshly being wrenched out as gravity and inertia won.

Lying in a heap on some rough red stone, Jace shakily pushed himself up to his knees, looking over in concern as he heard Ral emptying his stomach in forceful heaves. He crawled over, every joint shrieking at the movement, and grabbed Ral by snaking his hands to use Ral's harness as he lifted the best he could so Ral wasn't drowning in his own sickness. 

Convulsing, Ral tried to get his arms under him to support himself, but with the weight of his gear bearing down and his painful shaking, he gave up and relied on Jace's support. Tears streamed down his face but he didn't have awareness enough to feel humiliated as his mind flared with signals that assured him he was dying.

In spite of the acrid smell of bile, Jace knelt with Ral for well over an hour as he continued to heave. He rubbed his back as best he could, hand slipping from his shoulder to meander around the crossing straps of leather and large metal and glass capacitor. His other hand was still firmly holding onto the thick strap over Ral's shoulder so he keep the storm mage up, but Ral was starting to regain some semblance of alertness, and starting to be able to conjure meager support of his own body.

Ral ran the back of his hand over his mouth, a firm grimace and creased brow showing exactly how he felt. "Krokt, where are we?" The mana felt so different, so overpowering, even if absence strangely pulled at his senses. It wasn't doing his dampener any favors.

"Zendikar," Jace answered confidently. "Those are the Teeth of Akoum in the distance. I'd say we're probably in Bala Ged, but…" He looked around. The trees seemed young, but they were very much alive and healthy, as far as his inexperienced eye could tell.

Bala Ged had fallen. They should have been standing in chalky dust. He grimly looked back the the Teeth and pondered the possibility they were in Zendikar's past.

"Why the flying fuck are we on Zendikar?"

"I needed to get us out of the Blind Eternities," Jace answered defensively.

"But why did we enter the godsdamned Blind Eternities?" The anger pushing behind his words was largely just to bolster his otherwise weak, shaking voice. He wasn't experienced at planeswalking. Sure, he could do it, and he had gone adventuring a few times, but he didn't have the years of constant travel under his belt like Jace, and he wasn't prepared for rushed planeswalking or the consequences thereof.

"Maybe timewalking is a significant stress, something that might trigger planeswalking to protect us? Maybe our ability to timewalk is also tied to our spark. That could be why we didn't get stuck in time loops like others did. There are many possible reasons and we could ponder all day."

"I'd rather not," Ral said quietly, tired and broken. "I want to find a river to clean up in."

That was a fair desire. They could conjure water all they wanted, but it wouldn't beat being able to soak or being able to beat his clothes on rocks. Jace trembled as he got to his feet, feeling like he'd been trampled by a Gruul Clan. Involuntary planeswalking certainly wasn't fun.

Ral could barely stand, and his manabonds were exhausted despite such proximity to a grand mountain range and being on the doorstep of an impressively rocky hill. Jace gave over some on his mana reserves, strengthening Ral to the point he could walk with assistance.

They made way for the closest stream, Jace muttering arcanely under his breath to find a clairvoyant path. Clairvoyance was not a particularly good skill of Jace's, but it was enough to locate a static land feature unprotected by magic.

"I think I can manage on my own now," Ral determined, pressing at Jace to make him let go.

"But you—"

"I'm about to strip all my gear and take a dip in a gentle and _very conductive_ river. We'll probably have lunch afterwards if there's any fish in there. I'd rather you not be on the menu, not really into the whole canabolism thing." Ral grimaced as he bared his own weight, but took some steps ahead to prove he was okay on his own. He looked back and flashed a grin to exemplify just how fine he was. 

That his lip was split and dried blood was smeared across his face didn't really help sell it, but Jace knew he wouldn't win the argument. Ral was more than a little stressed; he wasn't reigning in any electricity without mechanical assistance right now.

"Why don't you find some wood for a fire while I clean up," Ral suggested," We can set up camp here. It'll probably take a day or two before I'm ready to walk in either sense."

Jace nodded and voiced agreement before setting to find firewood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't mention it last chapter update, but I graduated college! Still super busy because I'm looking at about 60 hours between two jobs and a volunteer-ship on the side, but it's such a relief to be done uwu;


	19. Chapter 19

Ral sat by the fire, his hair almost dry and clothing crisp with applied magic, rubbing one long sleeve of his shirt over his gauntlet. "I'm going to need to change out the plating. I'll never get rid of that too clean spot," he grumbled. 

Jace looked up sympathetically from the fire he was tending to, eyes unable to stay away from the painfully clear patch of metal that was much brighter than the rest. "How is the inside? We didn't fry that one piece again, did we?"

"Components are fine. I redirected my energy flow to keep stress off the relays," Ral answered, his voice bitter despite the good news. He kept running the cloth over the gauntlet fruitlessly, despite having commented thrice now that it was useless to try.

Jace smiled with relief. Mizzium would be impossible to find on Zendikar, and Ral would need to find tools to work with any other material. "Good. We'll need to timewalk again. We must be still in the past."

"Oh? What makes you say that?" They had found no civilization to figure out what period they were in. He thought a little roughly that if they'd found civilization, maybe he could take care of his damn beard that was coming in and making his face itch something awful.

"This is Bala Ged, and I fail—" His voice hitched. "The Gatewatch failed to save Bala Ged. It fell to the Eldrazi." They hadn't yet formed, Gideon hadn't even found him until the Seagate was under siege, but all four of the newly formed Gatewatch had individually failed to save—or some even to jump to action to save—Bala Ged.

Ral observed Jace curiously, taking in how personally he was taking it. Like this was his plane or as if it was his fault. "You know, you guys did more than you ever owed some random-ass plane, right? So you couldn't save part of it, you saved more than they ever would have on their own."

Jace's lips turned downward, but he didn't explain how if he and Chandra had never come to Zendikar, perhaps the Eldrazi would have never been freed.

"Maybe you could teach someone of the Eldrazi threat and prepare the Zendikari so everything turns out better," Ral suggested.

"No," Jace quickly dispelled. "No, I couldn't. We won. At great cost, but we won. If changing things should change the outcome for the worse—" Jace shuddered. "We can't chance that."

He poked at the fire some more. It wasn't really needed; Ral had started the fire with magic before Jace could warn him that magic was wild on this plane, and the fire was more than roaring. "Anyways, I don't know that we can change the past," he began, eyes tentatively meeting Ral's.

Ral raised one brow, and he asked," What do you mean?"

Jace cleared his throat, closing his eyes for a second to deal with the accompanying pain, and admitted," I, um, tried. I should have asked you, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it." He paused, only going on when Ral's expression seemed to urge more information.

"I left a letter with Teysa, discreetly addressed to myself, warning us not to timewalk. I don't know what I expected, but I guess I thought that we wouldn't then. Did I create a new timeline? Did I doom this iteration of us? Are we even the real Jace and Ral anymore? What if the letter was intercepted and put us in danger in the future?" Jace ran a hand anxiously through his hair.

"You're asking way too many questions that have no practical answers," Ral interrupted Jace's spiraling questions. "And we can't figure out a damn one of them until we get home, if we can at that. So no point worrying now."

"I'm sorry," Jace mumbled. "I—"

Ral interjected again," What's done is done. Why don't we focus on getting ready to leave this place? The bugs are killing me." Along with his slightly whining complaint, he slapped at his neck and sqaushed one of the offending boodsuckers. 

In their small clearing they were calling camp, the bugs _were_ fairly irritating, but the sun was only beginning to fall and Jace knew it would get worse. Did he tell Ral, or let him find out for himself?

Opting not to be the bearer of bad news, Jace instead proposed," A good first step would be finding out how far in the past we still are."

"Just how are we supposed to do that? I'm not exactly familiar with this plane enough to figure out by talking to some random person we might find."

Jace hummed to himself and said," I know quite a bit about Zendikar academia from the Lighthouse. If I could find a scholar, I should be able to get a rough estimate of our place in time."

It was a shame that they couldn't visit the Lighthouse. It would be quite intriguing to have another chance to visit the center of learning on Zendikar before Tazeem was destroyed by the Eldrazi. Jace ruminated how he had been a part in the destruction of such a great font of knowledge.

Ral scoffed. "In this backwater forest?"

"It's a jungle," Jace corrected off hand.

"Oh, whatever. Like it really matters. I'm guessing the people of this region aren't so technology savvy as to be beyond agrarian society."

"Actually, due to the devastating fauna of Bala Ged, most of the humans here rely on hunting and gathering."

"Devastating fauna, you say? Ooh, I'm really loving this place. Stand me corrected, Zendikar is the best mother of rains plane in all the 'verse," Ral snarked. He looked out past their small clearing, a little apprehension knitting his brow. "What kind of fauna are we talking?"

"Oh, you know, the basics. Man-eating scorpions, gnarlids, and my personal favorite, baloths."

"We should go back to Ravnica," Ral decided. He didn't know what a gnarlid was, but it didn't sound pleasant.

"Sure, let me know when you're ready."

Ral gave Jace a strange look and said disbelievingly," You make it sound like you already are."

Jace shrugged. "I'd probably wait another hour or so. It was a pretty rough landing."

Stomach turning, Ral turned his attention back to his gauntlet, a firm scowl taking root. He knew of course that he wasn't a very good planeswalker. He'd seen how easily Jace had entered the Blind Eternities before, part of tracking him and all that. He just hadn't realized just _how_ bad he was. The ache in his head and joints and the sick feeling that made breathing laborious made him doubt he could even manage tomorrow, and here Jace was saying he was already good to go. A prickle of humiliation at how pathetic he must have seemed earlier, writhing in his own sickness, colored his cheeks.

"I have a lot of practice," Jace excused guiltily, seeing how his nonchalant response had such a profound impact on Ral.

Ral moodily had no comment.

"Well, why don't we cook the fish you… caught, and call it a night," Jace offered with a small smile.

"Yeah, okay," Ral agreed, opening his gauntlet and taking out the small multitool he kept on him. He wasn't exactly pleased to be using such a reliable tool on gutting fish, but his stomach was grumbling and it wasn't irreplaceable like his souvenir tweezer-soldering iron.

Since they didn't have any bowls to keep the fish clean, Jace conjured some really strong illusions of bowls to rinse the fish in. Ral hadn't been joking about his propensity to find shocked, floating fish and toss them to shore for later eats. They weren't dead yet, which really grossed Jace out and made Ral have to work to seem unaffected, but neither of them actually knew much about fishing and what was preferable. Didn't the Orzhov drop live lobsters into boiling water? They finally decided clubbing the heads would be the most humane.

Jace worked on sharpening some sticks on a stone and rubbing off the bark, admittedly working half heartedly because he hated using his survival skills, while Ral set to gutting fish with a mildly squeamish expression. Neither of them had ever had any aspirations of being a chef, and they both certainly weren't fans of camping, which was rather unheard of on Ravnica. Who wanted to chance running into a Gruul Clan or Golgari hunting party?

"I hate planeswalking. I hate this plane. I hate jungles. I hate bugs," Ral muttered under his breath as scooped out the guts. He continued his complaints, even after he finished gutting and continued as he began to spear the fish with the very poor quality spits Jace was producing. "I hate cooking, and fish, and—" The particular fish he'd been trying to drive a spit through suddenly found itself blackened and giving off a less than pleasant charred smoke.

"Well, first one's cooked through," Jace offered jokingly, raising a quick shield of telekinesis as the burnt fish was thrown his way.

"How do you feel about being cooked through?" Ral threatened, mostly harmlessly, as an arc of lightning jumped from one shoulder to the other.

After a little more bickering and trying to decide how one was actually supposed to cook fish on a spit, they finally settled for roasting them slowly at a distance and turning the grounded spit every couple minutes.

The scales burned, filling the air with a slight odor Ral and Jace could have done without, but it was a fairly simple procedure. As the fish cooked, its skin began to pucker and pull from the meat, becoming glossy in the light of the flames. After pulling them off the fire, they were surprised by how easily the skin flaked off to reveal a well cooked landmine of speared meat, countless small spine bones holding it all together and ready to poke the novice cooks when they least expected it.

It was only marginally better than daily fungus, Jace decided, as he unsatisfyingly bit into his fish and crunched through the probably overdone skin. He missed home.

Ral searched for something to talk about, and eventually came up with," So will our standard wards hold up to the local wildlife, or should we take a staggered watch?"

"A staggered watch would be a lot easier with another person or two," Jace commented.

Ral gave him a look that cued him he wasn't being particularly helpful, but just sighed and said," It would be easier if we were in some gods' forsaken civilized society. What did we do to deserve being in the boonies?" To make his point, Ral sent a brief array of static out from his body, dropping a whole colony of flying insects.

Jace ignored him in favor of thinking about the spells they could layer to offer the best coverage. Vampires were likely closer than comfortable with Guul Draz being south of them, and bands of elves and humans weren't the most open to strangers in this part of Zendikar. It was hard to survive the jungle, and it trained those who could to be tough and put their tribe's needs above the needs of others.

When they were done eating, they burned the fish guts and tended to the fire a little more. A nice ring of stone they created together assured them they probably wouldn't start a wildfire, and they stoked it in hopes of it lasting the night to scare off predators. Ral whispered some spells into its flames to keep it strong but contained.

It took a while for them to sufficiently ward the area, and after the day's events, Jace found himself growing increasingly tired. Having a full stomach and being exhausted made sleep very appealing. After the heavy amount of spellcasting, Jace found it odd how hard they had to reach for mana, but dismissed it with how exhausted they were.

The fire had made the nearby ground a little drier and it was flat enough to sleep pretty comfortably. Definitely not ideal sleeping conditions, but it was the best they'd probably get. He curled up by the fire, and watched as Ral sat on the other side of the fire. He looked a little vexed, and it prompted Jace to ask," What's wrong?"

"Stupid backwater plane means there's no chair to sleep in." He'd removed his gauntlet, but he still had the gear at his hip and back to deal with.

"Then sleep with me," Jace sleepily offered.

"Jace, the lightning rods were too big to bring with us," he reminded the other.

"So?" Jace remembered the time Ral hadn't realized he was back at the inn, and he had managed not to shock Jace with no machine regulating his power. Ral wouldn't hurt him.

"You're being unreasonable. I thought I was the one knocked silly by the planeswalk."

"Ral," Jace said calmly. "Let me show you something."

"You mean show me with your mind magic?" The short silence followed confirmed it, and Ral sighed. "Yeah, okay."

He was shown the day when he'd accused Jace of sneaking up on him. He was shown how everything had been calm, and it was only his realization that Jace was there that had caused the air to charge. He'd became uneasy when he worried he might hurt Jace, but before then, he'd been safe. Calm. Collected. Not pouring out electricity like a Nivix generator.

"I trust you," Jace said softly, and Ral bristled.

"Yeah, well," Ral began," That's nice and all, but it doesn't change what I have to deal with." He'd lived thirty-eight years in this body, and he knew how it worked. Just because the other was a mind mage and had a few experiences of his that showed him off at his best didn't mean he could accomplish that all the time.

"Sorry," Jace fumbled over, much more aware than he had been before as the faux pas had him reeling to alertness.

"It doesn't matter," Ral dismissed.

Jace didn't know what to say, and he fell silent.

"Let's just get some sleep so we're ready for tomorrow. I want to rest up as quickly as possible."


	20. Chapter 20

Ral woke up sad. 

The kind of defeated sorrow that only came with doing all you could, and still failing nonetheless. Jace must have shared dreams again, because as Ral sat up, he could only look around at the trees and remember the shriveled, white husks of the wastes that Bala Ged had become, the dust crumbling and blowing away in the breeze and making a mockery of the proud strength the jungle and its inhabitants had boasted.

He blinked his eyes blearily, rubbing the sleep out of them, wondering what had woken him up for only a moment before it became clear. Their wards. Another alarm of some enormous beast crossing their invisible lines pulled at his chest and made breathing hurt. He was still so sore and exhausted from yesterday that simple magic was painful to use.

"Jace," he stage whispered as he turned to his companion, realizing afterwards that Jace was already fully alert and had the expression of being ready for whatever came chiseled into his face. Ral usually thought of Jace as ineffectual, chancing his way into winning the maze, or able to affect minds passively in a noncombatant capacity, but with the early morning light casting dramatic shadows over his face, Ral was reminded Jace had seen horrors that he had a hard time even conceptualizing.

This was the man that had faced the abomination he'd remembered in his dream—and survived—and was ready to face more with his little Gatewatch. A shiver tickled down his spine, and he absently adjusted a dial on his belt.

Ral had a sudden and uncomfortable feeling that he wasn't living half as exciting a life as Jace. He was a man of tomorrow and progress, and yet, as he compared himself to the mind mage, he found himself feeling peculiarly inferior.

"It's headed this way," Jace said levely," and at current speed, should be here in about half a minute." His expression softened as he added," But maybe we won't have to fight. Maybe it's friendly."

Jace's expression froze after that and he countered himself with," Nope, definitely wants to kill us. It's hungry. Let's run."

Ral nodded, double checking all his gear was operating at full capacity still and secure.

When he was ready, he got to his feet and looked to Jace to consult him on their plan of action. The other's eyes were glowing blue, presumably making an illusion to throw the beast off their trail or the like. 

Ral would've appreciated not having to fight for his life at this hour of the day. It couldn't even be six in the morning yet, though Ral had to concede he was making assumptions that Zendikar was in its summer and followed the same sunrise and sunset pattern as Ravnica when worlds could potentially—

"There's a second one and it's flanking us," Jace's words cut through Ral's thoughts like butter.

Ral cursed and tightened his hands into fists, a sudden rush of energy running through him. That the wind picked up into full gusts made perfect sense to Ral, his mind shifting to be ready for a fight.

"Careful, the magic is wild on this plane," Jace warned once again, looking over to Ral with a hint of concern.

Ral tried to repress the storm in his chest, but it wasn't going to happen, he finally decided. He couldn't adjust his dampener to be any stronger. "I know, and it's making every little spark want to be a full storm in its own right. I'm doing my best." 

"Well, I guess that could be to our advantage for the next encounter," Jace said, trying to stay positive. Every hair on his body was standing on end, and it was clear by the little arcs of electricity crawling around Ral's body he was ready for a fight. 

It was also clear to Jace how much Ral's head hurt as his pull on his mana bonds increased. Jace rubbed his temples to assuage the headache that wasn't his own.

The large, furred beasts that came into view did little to help. Jace looked up to the horned beasts with dread. They were better than some things that they could have encountered, but still not an easy beast to take down. That there were two of them took the situation from bad to worse.

"Well, if you're itching to release a storm, I'd suggest there," Jace shouted over the winds. The gnarlid he pointed to was snarling and running straight for them, dexterously jumping from thick tree branch to the next. It's sharp claws tore through ragged bark like warm wax and Jace grimaced as he thought of how easily his flesh would part under those paws. That it's bite was worse than its claws was only a source of more uneasiness.

They'd taken too long, and there was no running away at this point, so Jace did what he did best. Raising an illusion that they ran in one direction, he pulled on Ral's arm to drag him the opposite direction. It got him a nasty shock and a smoking boot, but they needed to escape the creeping feral mind he could feel behind him that they couldn't yet see.

A crashing leap had a second gnarlid in the space they had occupied only moments before, the earth parting for its presence and spraying rocky shrapnel at Ral and Jace. Most of this rock was deflected by the telekinetic shield that Jace had raised in anticipation.

"Strike it with lightning or something," Jace panicked, smelling its rank breath and knowing it could easily snap forward and tear them limb from limb in one small motion.

Ral thrusted forward his gauntleted hand and sent a bolt of lightning that created such a great snap of thunder, Jace's hearing was replaced with a ringing sound. He looked over to where the first gnarlid had been, up in the trees boughs yet, but found he wasn't there.

Jace's voice was much too loud as he asked," Have you seen the first one?"

His question was answered by Ral pulling them both to the ground in a uncoordinated heap as claws ripped through the air above them. Both their eyes grew wide as they saw it look down at them with all its teeth on full display.

Jace felt Ral's fingers dig into his skin bruisingly, he could feel the storm mage's fear that he was going to die on some other stupid plane and that none of the Izzet would ever know what happened to him or know of his great works he had never quite gotten finished. His mind was whirling with half finished plans on a handful of inventions he'd always meant to complete, and Jace had to shut it out so he could focus.

With full voice arcane shouting, Jace reached into the creature's mind and twisted. All attack was completely stopped, and for a moment, it was obvious that mental processing had as well. Then, the gnarlid sat back on its legs and wrapped its tail around like an oversized cat.

Ral, now that he wasn't busy dying, rolled over onto his stomach and tried to push himself up to his knees. His hip was in excruciating pain from having landed on his dampener, but luckily it was reinforced for more than a little rough landing—he wished he could the same for his hip. He barely managed to get a foot under him, but he pushed himself to standing and staggeringly offered Jace a hand up.

"What did you do?" he asked Jace, looking over to the gnarlid as Jace took his hand. He almost fell over as he supported the other's full weight, but he was relieved as he kept his balance and hefted Jace to his feet. He felt like he may vomit again, at his physical and magical limits once more as the adrenaline of battle wore off.

"She's not a particularly difficult mind to comprehend," Jace said, rubbing his forehead like he was tired anyways. "I think I can hold control for a few hours. Might come in handy if something else decides to eat us." Their current state and need for more protection outweighed the consequences of meshing his mind with a beast.

Ral raised a good point as he asked," What do we do when you can't control her anymore?"

Jace shrugged and looked to the other gnarlid. It smelled of charred flesh and hair. He didn't want to show Ral just how easy it was for him to end a life with his powers. Lightning was a very direct method. It wasn't pretty, but it made sense. There was no mystery. Ral didn't need to see a creature die from forgetting how to breathe or dropping mindless to the ground and wasting away slowly.

Jace winced as he bore full weight on his left foot for only a second and asked," You wouldn't mind if we took some time to catch our breath, would you?"

"It's not like we exactly have any plans of where to go," Ral answered. "Though, maybe we don't want to rest right beside a hunk of dead meat that might attract more predators."

"I can't walk like this," Jace made more clear. "I'll cover its scent the best I can."

"Walk like—?" Ral looked down to Jace's feet and noticed one boot was more than a little singed. "Oh, Krokt," he muttered as dread dropped in his stomach. "Mother of rains, I didn't mean to—"

Jace just shook his head and said," If you could help me to that log over there."

They shambled over and Jace shakily took his boot off, grimacing as he put pressure on his foot in its removal. It smelled even more of burning hair as Jace's wool sock was revealed to the air. The material was a lucky one, wool being self-extinguishing and prone to just becoming brittle ash rather than adhering to skin.

Much of the sock fell to the ground in fragile pieces as he tried to roll it off his foot, revealing a fair sized burn on his heel. Some of the ash found its way in the wound, and Jace grimaced as he thought about trying to clean it.

"Let me," Ral offered as he drew blue mana.

"No, you should really conserve your energy. You're barely standing as it is."

"You in my head?" Ral accused.

Jace didn't answer as he turned his attention to running cool water over his foot.

Scowling, but hardly able to be mad at Jace right now, Ral sat on the log beside him and looked over at their guard gnarlid. It kind of made him nervous how calm it was when it had been about to snap his head off earlier.

"Perhaps staying in the jungle isn't the best idea," Ral stated. "If I'm going to be expending energy like this everyday just to survive, how will I ever recover enough to walk?"

Jace thought over this and suggested," Akoum isn't much safer, but maybe we could find a settlement there. A big business of guides keeps some fairly large bars and surrounding villages flourishing and open to strangers."

"I guess a village is better than a jungle, but just barely. Does Zendikar have any proper cities?"

Jace knew what Ral's expectation was for a city and laughed lightly. "No, it doesn't have anything you would consider a city."

"I can't wait until we're back on Ravnica," he muttered, scratching at one of his many bug bites.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while. Stress has been fueling my depression and anxiety, and it's been hard to write anything or feel like making anything.


	21. Chapter 21

The gnarlid, which they had come to refer to as Lydia, began growling, setting both Jace and Ral on alert.

Ral looked to Jace expectantly, and Jace rolled his eyes and sighed. "I can't make out her every thought. It's not like she has coherent and complex notions. She smells some kind of people. Two legged people? Probably elves or humans, hopefully not vampires, approaching."

Jace wasn't afraid of dealing with the vampires. He'd done it before on Consortium business. However, he didn't want to give a long lived people a face to remember for when he came strolling back through Zendikar in the future. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of who Lydia had sensed coming.

People like Ral had never seen came swinging into view, alabaster skin and hair in sharp contrast with the dark and sparse clothing they wore. Three came to land directly in front of Jace and Ral, while the others came to impressive stops in the trees, all motion stopped without any graceless fumbling like Ral would have expected with the previous velocity.

Jace reached out and calmed Lydia, keeping her on guard, but not wanting her to force the kors' hands and make this situation tense if it didn't have to be.

The eldest kor spoke as she stepped forward. "What are you humans doing away from your tribe? It's many hours walking to the closest village."

"We're lost," Ral answered after a split second of confusion. They weren't speaking common Ravi for sure. "And we were attacked by wildlife."

Ral got to his feet, feeling awful as he put more stress on his body. He didn't want to seem rude or weak however, and Jace was obviously not getting to his feet anytime soon. He looked over to Jace, eyes lingering on the exposed foot.

"We just want to get to Akoum," Jace added.

"What do you seek in Akoum," the eldest spoke again. She seemed to be the leader.

"Any settlement with guides," Jace said with a weary smile.

The man who stood behind his leader to her left snickered. "In need of guides are you?"

Ral could sense a deal being swung their way, but Jace could pick exactly what they'd be offered.

"Sorry, but we have no coin or precious metals for trade," Jace said, hitting the mark perhaps a little too specifically.

" _Well, I mean, we have a little left over mizzium_ ," Ral thought over to Jace.

" _We are not introducing past Zendikar to miz—_ "

The woman to the leader's right stepped forward and pointed to Ral's arm. "No spare mizzium?"

" _They know about mizzium. They can identify it by_ sight _, Jace._ "

Jace would have snarked back that he caught that, but honestly, his brain was reeling with this information, and he could only stare blankly ahead, mouth agape.

"It's so rare. You must be quite rich to be able to use so much," she continued. "So you can understand where it makes you a little… interesting."

Ral looked up to the many kor still in the trees, then to the three that spoke to them. Glancing to Jace and then to his gauntlet, he thought over the information he was presented. " _I think we're in the future, Jace. The trees are too small. We would have to be centuries into the past for them to be this small._ "

Jace looked to his side and breathed," What?"

"The trees," Ral repeated aloud, but under his breath. "They're young."

"You would be correct," the leader commented," But that's a rather odd thing say when you're already an odd case."

Ral dismissed Jace's still spaced out look with a scoff and a wave of a hand, and asked," How much mizzium for safe passage to Akoum?"

"Maybe an ounce, if it's pure enough. Maybe two."

"Oh, this is pure, alright," Ral assured them. He opened his gauntlet's compartment and reached in with mana tingling fingers to scoop out about an ounce's worth like one would dough.

Receiving a look to go inspect, the male kor walked up to them and held out a red ribboned hand to Ral. As the golden metal was guardedly handed over, it only had to touch his hand for him to comment," More pure than I expected from a human."

"Akoum, you say?" Their leader came closer in elegant strides. "We'll take you to the border of Akoum. We're on our way to Tazeem, so it's not too much out of the way. Warning, though, it won't be an easy journey. We will expect you to keep up with us if we take a path on the ground."

Jace finally seemed with it as he softly put forth," But my foot…"

The elder looked up to the boughs her tribe still anchored themselves too, nodding solemnly that they were going to assist these lost humans. One by one, the kor dropped to the ground, looping their ropes and and other climbing gear and preparing for journey by foot. One kor approached Jace and held out a glowing hand.

The pain lingered as one would expect, but the flesh was soon mended and no one would ever be able to tell he had a fresh burn there just five minutes ago. An older scar remained, but it was a long time since it had hindered Jace. He shoved his burnt shoe back on his foot and wriggled his tense, aching toes.

"Your neck," the healer noted as he looked up.

"Uh, my cloak… My cloak got caught on a branch and I slipped," Jace quickly covered, not wanting to imply he'd been choked when he only had supposedly seen one other person in days. The healing touch pressed to his neck relieved so much pain, he closed his eyes and soaked in the white mana. When the hand was dropped, Jace felt his own immediately go to his neck and rub idly. "Thanks," he said, his voice coming much easier than it had in days.

The medic looked over to Ral and offered a hand towards his face, where the broken nose was still obviously swelled up around split skin, but Ral frowned and shook his head like it was no big deal. He didn't have the best track record with receiving healing and the other not needing it afterwards. He'd shocked Emmara before, and that had been _with_ the tea she'd given him.

"Will you be ready to leave your camp in ten minutes," the elder asked softly as she closed the distance between her and her fellow pilgrims.

"All we need to do is put out the fire," Jace answered, looking down as he was lacing his boot. He knew the Kor were more about efficiency than silly things like eye contact and other social expectations. He held out a hand for Ral to take, then eased himself onto his feet and stood. He winced as it bore his full weight, but smiled up to the elder.

"Breyan," he supplied, extending his hand. "Breyan… and Mal Hildact," he looked over to Ral, just barely hiding his disdain for the chosen names.

Ral couldn't help but wear the biggest grin.

"Kirina," their escort replied in kind, accepting Jace's handshake. "And your gnarlid…?"

Jace looked over to Lydia and tried to keep from grimacing. He didn't know how to explain, and he didn't know how to dismiss her without making it quite clear she was under his magical influence. He couldn't bring her along though, for fear of losing control of her in the excitement of traveling with so many two legged people.

He sent her to sleep slowly, letting her show clear signs of being tired, and hazarded," We fed her, hoping she'd keep away other predators. We won't need to keep her around now that we're traveling with you."

Kirina looked between him and Ral unconvinced, but decided to merely comment," It's unwise to feed animals in Bala Ged. They might get it in their heads you will again. Mera, add the gnarlid to our supplies."

Crying out as he looked over just in time to see Lydia swiftly slaughtered, Jace held the hem of his cloak in both hands tightly enough his fists shook. He had planned to set her free. She'd become almost cute as he named her, seemed kind even if it was just magical influence. 

He looked back to Kirina with aghast eyes, his expression only softening with the combination of Kirina's genuine look of guilt and Ral's hand quickly rubbing his back. 

"My apologies if she was like a pet to you," Kirina began tentatively. She was speaking of things that were alien to her. The Kor didn't waste precious resources on animals that served no purpose; they didn't even waste luxuries on themselves. Jace could feel her thoughts forming empathetically, whirling in worry that she'd killed a friend of some sort.

"N-no," Jace forced out. His tensed shoulders drooped. "I was just surprised."

The elder nodded, again not completely sold, and said," Well, let's see to the fire and head out soon." Her people would make quick work of the gnarlid with salt and applied magic to present weeks of sun drying in a few minutes' time.

Without much more ado, they set out for Akoum. Jace learned from brushing against the minds of the tribe that they'd already been planning on a route that took the kor to the edge of Akoum to catch the western peninsula to take them close to Tazeem. No wonder they were so easy to ask for help from.

They walked over an hour without rest, and from the weary and resigned stare Jace looked ahead with, Ral was beginning to expect they'd walk hours more before they took a break. "How you holding up," he asked, hoping he wasn't the only one who felt like he might keel over. It wouldn't be so bad except for the pace. It was just slightly faster than a natural walking speed and constant, and Ral was more a short, fast bursts kind of guy.

"I'm stealing your sock," Jace deadpanned.

In the spread out tribe, maintaining the rear, it was easy talking and allowed laid back conversation, so long as they didn't spill any time or planeswalking info. They hadn't been making an effort to converse much so far, just focusing on not falling too far behind.

"You're what?"

"My foot has been bleeding for over forty minutes," Jace explained softly, but his voice had a hard edge. "I'm stealing one of your socks and there is nothing that can stop me." The rough leather of his singed boot had been cutting into his ankle mercilessly for the last hour.

Ral wasn't actually sure if Jace was kidding with the unsettling certainty of his statements, and he laughed nervously. 

"How are _you_ holding up?" Jace asked after a moment's silence. He helped Ral over a fallen tree that didn't even slow their trekking companions. His ankle may be scraped up and painful, but Ral had to feel like he was dying. It was evident in the stiff movements of his joints and the dizzy spells that Jace kept picking up on. 

Ral hissed through his teeth as he jumped down from the log. "Doing just great," he huffed.

If he was okay enough to be sarcastic, he couldn't be doing too badly.

One of the kor hung back to talk to Ral and Jace, and Jace almost broke out into relieved laughter. It was no surprise to him as the woman said," We're resting here for an hour."

"Oh thank gods," Ral whispered, falling back to the log and planting an arm to stabilize himself. With its earthy support, he lowered himself to the ground, not even caring as the jungle's dampness quickly soaked into his pants. He ignored the standing people as he turned and pressed his shoulder and face into the log and tried to make the world around him disappear.

She held out small bundles wrapped in loosely woven cloth, and Jace took both and passed one to Ral. He got an exasperated sigh as Ral leaned away from the log and paid attention enough to grab the food. "Here is some jerky to hold you over until our next stop."

They both eagerly ripped into the meat, stomachs audibly growling from not yet eating that day and having trekked nonstop for hours. Once again, they were mostly left alone and given a wide berth as the woman left.

"What meat is this?" Ral paused and looked at it suspiciously. It wasn't like any meat he'd had before.

Jace sulked as he answered," Gnarlid." 

Ral fell awkwardly silent and continued eating. 

Jace perked up a little later and relayed," We're two days away from the village." Two days of walking wasn't awful. It wasn't great, but it was certainly doable.

"How do you kn—Never mind. I didn't just ask a stupid question." Ral looked at him like he wished he could sink into the jungle floor. "I'm really exhausted," he miserably tagged on as he saw Jace trying to stifle a laugh at his expense.

With a haggard sigh, Ral planted his face in his palms and asked," You don't think they're watching us too closely do you? Because I kind of think I might pass out."

"No, but I could find out."

"Well, don't be obvious about it. Like, don't ask 'em. I don't want to seem like a weakling."

Jace raised his brows and gave Ral a look of, _really?_ , as he pointed out," We will probably never meet a single one of these people again."

"You're used to seeming weak. You spend all your days with Beefcake," Ral accused with a nasty glare.

Jace scoffed and pushed Ral's arm lightly, but then chuckled and shook his head.

Eyes narrowing, suspicious of being laughed _at_ , Ral sharply asked," What?"

"Nothing," Jace dismissed, then decided to answer anyways. "It's just that Lili has started calling him Beefslab lately." Perhaps "lately" wasn't the right word. They'd been gone for a long time at this point. He hadn't even _talked_ to her "lately", nor any of the rest of the Gatewatch, in well over three weeks from his perspective.

Wrapping the jerky back up, Ral huffed and shoved it into one of his many pockets and went back to cradling himself against the log.

Jace looked on with a worried pout. The kor had intended to walk much further before stopping but had taken a break on their account. Truthfully, Ral didn't look so hot right now, his cheeks drained of color and a sickly sheen gathering on his forehead. He was remaining wry and largely upbeat for Ral, but Jace still chewed his lip as he fruitlessly thought of how he could help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, it's been a while since I posted, but after moving three times in as many months, getting two new jobs, and even more fun adulting, I've just been too tired to beta my own works well. I apologize for any egregious grammar/spelling errors... I hope to go over this chapter closely next week, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting longer. Please enjoy!


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've moved to an apartment all by myself, which wasn't quite what I intended with rent being so rough on a single barely-living-wage budget fresh out of college. I can't afford wifi, which means I haven't done a lot of writing in the past while, and I won't be updating much for a while either. I never really recovered from my rough patch that cropped up in January, and further financial stress and working everyday for two weeks straight being normal has just made things worse. Any well wishes my way would be greatly appreciated.

When it was time to go, Ral came to by Jace shaking his other shoulder. He looked to Jace miserably and whined," Five more minutes."

"I already gave you five more minutes twice, they're getting antsy to go," Jace whispered, stretching the truth a little. He'd actually begged the kor to wait fifteen more minutes before waking him, feeling Ral's mind and finding him so close to finishing a dream cycle. Jace had been monitoring his sleep and keeping away the nightmares so Ral may get any worthwhile sleep in his fatigue.

As the storm mage whined but assented, he helped Ral to his feet, groaning at his own sore muscles and then the onslaught of Ral's pain too. This had to be the worst jaunt through some woods ever.

But they _weren't_ just some woods… He'd talked a little to the kor while Ral slept, guiding their thoughts to find out more about their trek. This really was Bala Ged in the future. The Worldwaker had revived Bala Ged and Sejiri and every other place touched by the Eldrazi. Jace had become teary eyed as he read their reverence and realized they were talking about Nissa—over a century ago Nissa—and how many decades she'd lead the peoples into a united front to return the land to its proper way.

She'd healed Zendikar like she'd promised.

She'd brought the Zendikari even closer together than Gideon had managed.

This small tribe of kor had many with human and elven lovers. They had merfolk and goblin friends. They even associated and got along with vampires now. That they were separated now was only a matter of faith. They didn't look down on other faiths, theirs simply dictated they must go on massive pilgrimages, and now they rested in villages of many peoples on occasion when they neared such establishments and the weather threatened storm. 

"You seem…" Ral trailed off, not quite sure how to word it. Jace had a somewhat sad expression, but it seemed overall happy.

Jace wiped at his eyes that had managed not to quite cry yet, feeling how warm they were. "I've learned a lot," he murmured, a little overcome with emotions. He had doomed Zendikar, and failed it and its people a lot before managing to finally save the Multiverse, but in the end Zendikar hadn't stayed down. The resilient Zendikari had rebuilt their world and it was once more healthy. Nissa had healed its soul to full health before her enigmatic disappearance a little over a decade back.

Ral couldn't understand his elation, but he nodded, recognizing it. "Glad to hear it, Breyan."

They walked in silence for a minute or two, before Ral finally shook off all the fogginess of his tired mind and he realized his one foot was beginning to rub awfully in one boot. His ankle and little toe were beginning to rub raw and he snapped his head towards Jace with an affronted gasp.

"Did you really steal my sock?"

Jace didn't betray an ounce of guilt as he calmly insisted," I said I was going to."

"Gross!"

Jace shrugged and excused," I cleaned if first." Sure he only had water he could conjure to do so, but it was nice to put the soaking sock on his blistered foot and it wasn't like the sock stayed damp long in the sweltering heat of Bala Ged.

"My little toe is on fire. Y-you don't even have a little toe on that foot to blister," Ral complained.

"Yeah. So the boot moves around a little more. More friction, more pain, jackass," Jace stubbornly countered.

What started as a quiet conversation between them soon escalated. Neither of them considered how juvenile their continuing bickering sounded until one of the others finally broke up their fight that had boiled over, presenting a pair of new socks.

Jace looked a little sheepish, but Ral just turned up his nose and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Breyan's the one who likes taking other's socks," he declined. He pointedly ignored the glare shot his way by Jace, unable to keep from smirking a little at the other's mortification.

Jace gave a humiliated moan as he caved and accepted the socks with mumbled thanks. As he knelt to switch out the sock, he flusteredly asked," _How aren't you at least a little embarrassed?_ "

" _Because it's fucking hilarious._ "

"You're a jerk," Jace said, throwing a once again sopping sock at Ral's face. He was already as red in the face as the Stoneforgers' ribbon; his childish displays couldn't humiliate him any further. A certain amount of satisfaction made his lips curl as Ral squawked at the sudden attack and fumbled to get the sock off his face.

"I don't know which is worse," Ral muttered as he unlaced his boot and shoved the wet sock on," Getting hit in the face with a sock or thinking it felt good in this blistering heat. How do you survive in longsleeves and a full cloak…?"

Jace took his turn to ignore the other as he started walking. Every kor's amusement pressed against his mind and he kept his eyes glued to the forest floor. His ears burned, and he felt he may never forgive Ral for this. He kind of wanted a piece of the land to rise up as a grand elemental and swallow him up now.

Even though Ral was the one who was always moving, he was used to being the one who had to call after Jace to wait. He didn't even have to put words to it as he sent a mental flare Jace's way. The mind mage slowly came to a stop, his hood pulled up and his head bowed. Ral hurried and caught up, his heart racing a little despite the short jaunt.

"Krokt, Breyan. You gotta go easy on me, I'm already out of breath."

Jace pursed his lips and spared Ral only a sidelong glance.

With a bit of exasperated whine, Ral asked," What?"

Jace sighed and realized Ral couldn't understand what he was feeling unless he actually shared. Keeping his gaze down, his eyes started to glow, and Ral's steps slowed. Jace picked one out of the crowd, and shared the wry amusement he was looking down at them with. It's not that he meant to be condescending, he was in his own rights to have his own thoughts, but the way he looked at them as adult children bowled through their minds.

" _Oh_ ," Ral thought back bleakly," _That feels awful._ "

The derision wasn't voiced, but it was to Jace. All the time. And Ral pouted as he realized he was acting without all of the consequences. " _Shit. Sorry. I've never had to feel what other people think._ " The feelings in his head that weren't his own fell away, leaving his stomach churning a little.

Jace shook his head to clear a small dizzy spell. 

" _Until you came into my life, I mean. That whole Implicit Maze stunt was crazy_ ," Ral added. He still thought back to how intimately he'd personally felt every other maze runner's beliefs as if they were his own, even if for only mere moments, when he made eye contact with any of the others. 

" _The migraine that followed easily found a spot in top five worst headaches I've ever had_ ," Jace recalled with a grimace.

Ral thought back and wondered just how difficult merging all of their minds had been. It had to be ridiculously demanding, but imagining how one would go about wielding the power necessary was beyond him. Working closely with Niv Mizzet and coming to know Jace left Ral in a curious position of actually having a lot of experience with what mind magic could do, without having any personal experience or precise understanding of how it worked.

Jace sharing the man's thoughts with him would probably be as close as he ever got to understanding what it felt like, and he couldn't begin to imagine the constant reality that Jace experienced.

They fell back into silence as Ral thought too far into the subject to ever hope to come to any kind of final answer that would quell his curiosity, and Jace found himself too wrapped up trying not to think about how embarrassed he was. It was so obnoxious how knowing that reaching out with his mind would only upset himself, but it made the temptation stronger. Human inclination could really be stupid sometimes.

His partner losing his balance in the underfoot bramble caught the mind mage's attention, and Jace looked over quickly, trying to prepare himself to catch Ral should he fall. Ral shook his head as he stood up straight though, hand waving Jace's readiness to help. Jace grimaced at how weary Ral looked. He'd seemed a lot better after his nap, more with it and ready to hike than he had before. His breath was verging on ragged again however, and his forehead that had been glistening with sweat now appeared dry.

Jace looked forward to the tribe and called out," Could we get some water?" The worried concern was clear in his voice.

"Really, Jace, I'm fine," Ral mumbled," It's just hot out here and walking sucks."

Ral didn't question the immediate invasion into his mind, too tired to care about Jace setting up shop in his brain. They'd stopped walking, he was pretty sure. Or maybe his legs were still moving… He didn't really know, but he didn't really care either.

"How long has your vision been blurry," Jace asked in a worried whisper. Then, he mentally berated," _You don't stay quiet about that kind of stuff. Especially when you've recently survived an emergency planeswalk._ " His own muscles ached in ghost sensation as he synced his mind to feel what Ral did. How had he walked this whole time? Jace had to let go as he nearly fell over from the shared dizziness.

"I meant, Breyan. What did I say?" Ral muttered to himself, still caught up on his dismissal of Jace's concern.

Apparently he'd still been walking, because he nearly fell again, but two sets of strong, pale hands steadied him, then eased him too the ground. A hand on his shoulder pressed him forward so his head rested between his raised knees.

"Try to relax," a deep voice urged beside him.

Ral scowled and snapped," I'm fine. I am relaxed." He absolutely _hated_ when people urged he relax. He could be in one of the deepest of calms and that suggestion would set him off. He tried to sit up and give whoever suggested this a piece of his mind, but he was pushed back down, resulting in more than a few small sparks.

It felt better to curl up anyways, he decided, hugging his arms around his legs and begrudgingly relaxing.

The healer from before came forth, setting a hand on Ral's head and focusing. "I've never felt anything like this before," he commented. "Other than his nose and lip, he has no discernible injuries, but…"

"He expended most of his energy protecting us from the wildlife," Jace quickly excused. Dangerous planeswalking couldn't feel like normal fatigue, but he didn't know how it would read to one who studied medicine and white magic. Hopefully it was close enough to expending too much mana.

The healer wasn't completely sold, Jace could feel, but he accepted it. "Well, I'll heal his nose, but he just needs time to heal for the rest of it. We can't spare the mana for reinvigoration."

Jace quirked an eyebrow at the last comment and skimmed across everyone's minds. There was a grand project, something that demanded respect and sacred preparation for. Jace's mind began to quickly formulate a question that wouldn't alienate himself but would focus their thoughts.

"Your business in Tazeem?" That was perhaps a bit too forward, but Jace figured it would be fine. Kor, as a general rule, were a straight forward people. No nonsense, no extraneous pleasures on the road.

One of his guides that was still supporting Ral had a rather clear thought that Jace found enlightening. They would be passing through several areas across the continent before actually leaving for Tazeem. When they reached Akoum, they were actually heading the opposite direction of Tazeem.

"We won't reach Tazeem for a long time," another guide answered. A tall kor who was bringing over two waterskins. He handed one to Jace, then the other to someone who could assist Ral. "But yes, the goal that drives us to Tazeem."

That was when people's thoughts swirled to reveal Tazeem wasn't even the next destination after Akoum. They planned to journey through Sejiri first. 

"You must be truly new here not to know," Kirina commented as she came to the back of the troupe to check on her human guests.

"Well…"

Jace's excuse was cut short by the wise leader's smirk, and soon she intimated," You're from much farther away than Tazeem."

Did these kor who knew about mizzium also know about planeswalkers? True, many of the allied Zendikari had known the Gatewatch was largely comprised of off-worlders. When they had thought about their Worldwaker restoring the world, they _had_ thought about her as having come back, like she was more gone than simply spending time in Ondu. He didn't know these people though, and he would hate to change their understanding of reality when there was no present danger or need. Jace knew better than most that some people couldn't handle knowing there were other worlds… 

"My husband and I," Jace slowly began, mind racing to find a reasonable answer that didn't label them as planeswalkers.

" _Are scientists. Inquire everything_ ," Ral supplied in the back of Jace's mind.

"Are scientists. Ecologists, specifically. You learn the most when you pretend you know nothing," Jace spun. He undid his vest a little so he could fish out his journal and offered it to Kirina. "While we were stuck out here, I've had less chance than usual to write down what I've seen since we've been struggling to stay alive. Your anecdotes to how the environment is being nurtured back to health would be wonderfully helpful."

Ral managed to look up at Jace with a questioning look, doubting that going so far was a smart decision. He saw the journal be passed over and gave Jace a vaguely cautious look. Instead of push his head back down, Ral was relieved they let him sit up fully and and gave him some water to drink.

"Slowly," the man to his right cautioned, which Ral promptly disregarded.

"You have quite a talent for drawing," Kirina commented, flipping through the pages and admiring Jace's work.

Jace respectfully thanked her and smiled, though the compliment was undeserving. He'd merely risen illusions on the pages chronicling Ravnica to display information about Zendikar. The illustrations looked to be done by a much more practiced hand since he couldn't imagine quickly enough what the world around him would look like rendered by an average illustrator at best.

When she handed it back, he kept it at his side, ready to take more notes when they began walking again. He chewed his lip nervously as he looked down to Ral, unsure when they would be able to. He sent out cursory thought," _How are you feeling now? Any better?_ "

Ral stopped drinking and rested his forehead on his knees. " _I don't know that I can walk. I still feel dizzy when I look up_ ," Ral answered, embarrassment coloring his cheeks as well as his thoughts.

Jace wanted to assure him it was alright, that Ral had nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone had bad planeswalks, well, all planeswalkers did. Anyways, Ral had watched over him for almost a week when he got hurt on Ravnica. Ral had still had the tenacity to march through his pain and get this far. Jace didn't know how to convey any of this, though, and so stayed quiet.

"Well, we can't afford to wait any longer," Kirina said, looking around to her people. "But he doesn't seem quite ready to be walking yet."

Jace felt Ral's mind begin to spin chaotically, fearful they'd be abandoned because of him, angry they'ed be stiffed of their mizzium, and a million other emotions saddling panicked frustration.

With a relaxed commanding air, Kirina looked around and assessed her tribe. "Zevni, Hakili, you'll take shifts until dinner. His gear—"

Jace read her plans and quickly interjected," He needs his gear."

"Then we best add another to rotation," Kirina said with a short sigh, trying to decide who'd be best. They needed their hookslingers for the next part of their route.

"I can take him first, Kirina," a woman offered, stepping forward.

"Perfect. Thank you, Sani," the leader said with a curt, pleased nod. She looked over to Jace then, who was breathing out with relief. "You look like you thought we would leave you behind."

His voice raised in pitch as he hastily tried to insist," No, no, I was just—"

"The Kor do not leave anyone behind. Until you reach Akoum, you are one of ours, and we will do whatever we must to protect you." 

Jace peered into her mind, every word holding more meaning than the average human use. Life during a pilgrimage was demanding, but every member of the tribe contributed what they could, and sometimes that was highly disportionate, but that was life. They didn't see it as picking up slack.

Jace didn't thank her, reading that she would view it as rude to assume her taking care of them needed gratitude, and only nodded. They set out after Ral was situated on Sani's back, his gangly legs subconsciously locking at the ankles and his arms hanging at awkward angles that didn't look comfortable. 

The kor mostly helped Sani get ready, Jace only helping from the sidelines by using a little telekinetic force to keep Ral's equipment from moving around awkwardly as they situated him. He was already dozing half a minute into walking, and Jace turned his mind away, resisting the urge to check further that he was okay. The healer had already said he just needed rest, which he was getting, so there was little Jace could actually do for him.

Instead, he turned to the kor. Jace had never been a very spiritual person, quick to deny Lili's belief in souls and to think of planes' gods as more powerful spirits than anything else, but this was a spiritual journey. It wasn't on a whim that so many kor lived a nomadic lifestyle. Even to this date in the far off future, Kor still bore striking tattoos as a sign of their faith.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the harsh wear on their bodies and the many threats against their life during the pancontinental pilgrimage, a focused calm lifted their hearts. Many around him, he now kept towards the middle to be near Ral, bore rough expressions.

Their eyes were hard with the mettle it took to survive Zendikar's wilds, and their sparse leathers showed the wear and tear they'd weathered over the course of their long-lived journey, but Jace felt a peace as they felt closer to some higher power. It almost made Jace reconsider his own spirituality, or lack thereof, though those thoughts were interrupted by an attack.

Jace threw up a barrier between the giant scorpion and its prey, and while the lunging tail broke through, it slowed the stinger enough for the kor to get out of the way. The mind mage looked around with amazement as five separate ropes were slung suddenly, their rope slinging able to react almost as quickly as his intuitive spellcasting.

With deft motions, the kor quickly subdued the threat. It was never mentioned how he saved another's life, but Jace didn't need thanks when could feel the approval around him. They all worked as a team and he felt kind of folded in. It was nice, even if it was temporary.

Ral was groggily looking around, trying to figure out why he'd been jostled awake. The sight of the giant scorpion held his stare once he saw it, but he merely shrugged and went back to sleep. Jace thought to himself that Ral must really be out of it to not even complain about how other planes were trying to kill him.

Jace had trouble staying hydrated with how hot it was and how long they walked without a break. He tried to keep his mind off it when his waterskin was drained, not wanting to be a bother, and worked on his journal to keep his mind busy.

He couldn't draw anything while walking, but he made note of all he'd learned and jotted down observations as he went. Now that he was really paying attention, the jungle did seem different from his previous times on Zendikar pre-Eldrazi. 

He'd put up barriers to keep his attention off of Ral, and to focus more on his work than the others around him, but he still felt the sudden spike in the mind of Hakili, who was the current kor in rotation to carry Ral. He felt the how every hair on Hakili's body raised, much like when something went bump in the night when one was all alone or when the choir slid into perfect harmony and the chord finally clicked, or more specifically, an electromancer was waking up not knowing where he was or why he was being piggybacked by a complete stranger.

Jace dropped his journal and pen as he frantically dismissed the defensive bolt he felt charged as he dissolved every barrier and gleaned just how Ral was about to react. As the spell wasn't even fully intentional, he had no problem countering the entire volley of electricity, but it left Ral discombobulated, which left Jace himself reeling a little as he tried extract himself.

The display of magic flaring out from Jace was obvious, and he hadn't had the time to raise an illusion otherwise. Wisps of blue curled and faded, entwining Ral and trailing back to Jace.

"What's going on here?"

Jace looked over to Kirina with a forced smile. "Mal sometimes wakes up with a bit of a shock," he excused vaguely. A very, _ha ha very funny_ , expression tickled the back of his mind as he and Ral locked eyes. True to his typical propensity, this thought was only one of many in Ral's head fighting for focus, and poor Hakili was suddenly struggling to keep himself righted as Ral squirming to get to the ground.

"I–" Ral landed an elbow into Hakili's neck _probably_ accidently. "I'm fine to walk," he continued haltingly, his floundering cutting into his speech. "On my own," he added as he finally got his feet to the ground and Hakili still was helping him keep his balance, despite the several bruises beginning to form.

Ral jerked his arm away from Hakili. Disoriented and with searching eyes, he finally found Jace again and took a deep sigh of relief. The relief was short lived as he took in everyone's stares. Diffidently righting his clothing, he announced," I'm fine." 

" _They're just concerned_ ," Jace lied on Ral's behalf, feeling a little bad for his friend who was starting to go red in the face. Pretty much all of the kor thought he was making an ass of himself, which Jace had to agree with, but Jace opted to favor being nice over accuracy.

" _Save it. You're a bad liar, even in your head_ ," Ral thought back bitterly.

Jace fell silent as he thought with a fair amount of shame that Ral's comment was only true because he let it be. He could sell someone on anything, even that water was dry or some random rock was their mother, if he really wanted to.

Everyone had stopped in their tracks at the huge display, and no one had resumed their march as events unfolded into the awkward mess of Ral trying to retain any dignity he may have been clutching onto. Kirina cleared her voice to grab everyone's attention and then announced," Only two more hours before sunset. Let's make a little more progress and then set up camp."

And like that, they were off. Jace moaned quietly as his joints protested even picking up his journal, but he hung his head and continued walking. He couldn't help but be a little envious that Ral had missed out on two hours of walking. Looking over, though, his petty feelings fizzled. That was the trudge of someone in a lot of pain, doing their best to hide it, and failing.

The planeswalk sure hadn't been easy on him either, but it hadn't taken such a toll like it had on Ral. Jace's stomach curled as he thought momentarily they were lucky he made it at all. His soul had to have threatened abrasion of the Blind Eternities. All it took was one second and, _snap_ , the soul corroded into the fabric of the Eternities, gone forever.

Jace focused on the journal that was now covered in mud. He had to focus on something else.

They were pretending to be ecologists after all. He might as well make more additions to his notes. Flipping the young but well-worn journal open to the next empty page, Jace tried to will himself to write something, but as he looked around, all he could think was the precautions they'd need to take for their next jump. His pen seemed to echo his reluctance to write more, the long scratchy lines finally giving out to running completely dry.


	23. Chapter 23

Stretching as he took off his gear, Ral exhaled noisily. 

Dinner had been bland, but warm and filling. As they didn't bring any surplus supplies on their pilgrimages, the kor had to rearrange their sleeping assignments to make an extra tent for their guests to share. It was small, only allowing for the residents of its protection to sit, and giving maybe an arm's length of space to fit both of their gear at the feet of their bedroll. 

He stripped his shirt, wiped the sweat from his brow, and tossed it to the pile of mizzium and leather. Only Jace's journal and pen took space and proved Ral wasn't sleeping by himself.

A single bedroll, thin after apparent years of use, and one wool blanket were the only accommodations. Ral immediately rolled the blanket up into a makeshift pillow, deciding that Jace could make do in this sauna without a blanket for once. The tent had no airflow and was stifling, Ral could hardly understand how Jace still had his cloak on.

Raising one eyebrow as he watched Ral ditch all of his equipment at the tent's entrance flap and crawl over to the bedroll, Jace commented," I thought you couldn't do without your gear."

Ral pursed his lips and glared, not really feeling up to this conversation right now. "Today's different. Tomorrow might be out too, I don't know."

Jace could kind of relate. His magic fluctuated too, but it wasn't the same. He didn't have some physical warning that told him when he should take it easy. "So it's just a toss of the dice?"

"That's not how it is at all," Ral icely interjected. "It's not random, it's just…" His voice grew warm and soft, and also… tentative. "We can't necessarily see the pattern. I have good and bad days, and I know what they feel like.

"I need you to understand that sometimes I say I can't do something, and I mean it. You could have seen me do it yesterday, but everyday is different. I'm not faking it or being difficult. Today I can probably sleep without my gear, maybe tomorrow there'll be no doubt, and the day after I can't. I don't know, time'll tell."

Jace could feel the tension in Ral, a coiled frustration that Jace had probably trampled over. "I understand—well, I mean, okay. I'm sorry for pressing you."

"Don't sweat it," Ral assured him. "You've known me for what, half a year? And we didn't even talk most of that time. I couldn't expect you to know."

Jace thought to himself, _maybe he_ should've _known_. How often had he shared headspace with Ral, intentionally or not? But, no, it was better to have Ral tell him.

Jace stayed silent, unsure what to say next. "We're going to have an early morning, most likely. Let's get some sleep," he suggested after he and Ral had managed a whole minute of awkwardly averting their gazes.

"I am not ready for another day of walking," Ral whined. "This is why civilized cultures stay in one place. You know, build infrastructure that could actually hope to protect you from a storm or rampaging beast?"

"Ral," Jace huffed with a disapproving scowl and furrowed brow. "This nomadic way of life means a lot to them."

"Yeah? Well pillows and beds mean a lot to me," Ral mumbled under his breath with a rather rude lilt to his voice.

Jace rolled his eyes and pointed out," You didn't sleep in your bed more than thrice when we were working together to figure out timewalking."

"Well, I had a work table. A nice, firm, stable, steel work table. Let's see them throw together something so sturdy."

"You're just being a close-minded dullard for the hells of it," Jace said, turning away and laying down, his back to Ral. The wool blanket was scratchy against his face, he found, wrinkling his nose at the discomfort. He lifted his head so he may draw his hood up and settled back down with the soft cotton beneath his cheek.

"There's nothing wrong with—" Ral gave a small humph, then settled down beside Jace. "Maybe," he conceded quietly, such that Jace could barely hear the admission.

He rested his forehead against Jace's back, hand raising to his shoulder, but backing off slowly. After two nights ago, he was understandably nervous. He dealt with it the only way he knew how: complaining and attacking the other.

"You really keeping everything on while you sleep? How humid and hot does it have to be to get you out of your cloak? Volcano? No I bet you'd claim it was protecting you from the convection heat. Screw thermodynamics."

Jace let Ral ramble, feeling the unease bubble in his mind. He wished Ral would choose a less sore subject to go on a tangent about, but he couldn't bring himself to shush him. He could feel the hand that uncertainty hovered.

Wrapped up in his cloak, it was difficult to turn towards Ral, so he sat up. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Ral's eyes dart away. A small spark of indignation took hold, and Jace irritatedly asked," Why do you care what I'm wearing anyways?"

"Because I'm the poor schmuck who's going to have to walk with you when you smell like a Gruul–"

"Just shut up," Jace blurted. "Krokt, Ral. Just go to sleep."

Jace sank back down to bed roll with frustration, miserably glaring at the tent's wall. "You didn't do anything wrong. Well, you're rude, but it's fine," Jace answered the still forming questions of the buzzing brain behind him.

"H-hey, I didn't…"

Jace didn't feel like arguing if he had permission to read Ral's thoughts or not. Ral had been thinking them loudly, as he often did when speaking with Jace, and the intention to convey the questions _eventually_ had been there if he could muster the nerve. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself and grumbled something incomprehensible.

Ral tried to get another word in, but Jace interrupted," It's been a long day. I'm exhausted. Go to bed." His voice was sharp and heavy and probably more brusque than it needed to be, but he was honestly too emotionally drained to care.

He felt Ral's mind acknowledging his presence in it, and then think an apology his way. Promptly followed by an unapologetic drive to break the silence Jace just asked for.

"If it's about your scars, I've seen them. A lot." Ral bit his lip as he thought about how he could come across a little less blunt. "And I know you've seen mine too."

Jace almost refuted immediately, but in all honesty, it _was_ about the scars. Just not how Ral was thinking. Taking a deep sigh, Jace hesitantly said," My burns, I got them all at the same time. Well, I mean, over a month or so, and… It was over and over and I… I couldn't have any of them checked out, so of course none of them were healing right." His voice had started tentative but full and grew wavering and quiet.

"I, uh, I couldn't stay on Ravnica. I think I saw some witch doctor on, hmm, Lorwyn? Or was it a white witch on Kephalai? I don't really remember, I went to both around then, but I guess it doesn't really matter. And I stayed with a healer for a long time. A few healers. The one gave me compression shirts and pants. Th-they helped with the pain.

"I mean, only so much. I had to regrow nerves along most of my body, but the pressure curbed the pain, and it became… comfortable," Jace shrank in on himself as he finished, his final words barely whispers. It was more than comfort. The pressure across his chest and abdomen felt _safe_. Secure. Right. He couldn't find a word in any language he knew to describe it. 

"Like my gear," Ral said, his voice pointedly nonchalant, normalizing.

Jace noncommittally agreed.

"When I was kid," Ral started abruptly, then cleared his throat and settled into a low storytelling voice. "I always was making it drizzle, or windy, or well, I was a mess. Okay, _am_ a mess. But I was always was getting in trouble for getting to class late, drenched even though it'd been a sunny day or some shit, and kids are douchebags. Mother of Rains, I got my ass handed to me all the damned time.

"The more I lost control, the more they came after me. Krokt, by the time I wound up in the Tenth Precinct, no food, no money to my name, and doing jumping jacks to stay warm at night, I was—" Ral's speech had been slowly getting faster and he'd been forgoing breathing, and now he exhaled and took a second to collect himself. At a much more reasonable rate, Ral continued in a reluctant mumble," Old Man Ixavner really helped me out. He put up with me, you know? Like, that was really something."

People thought he was bad now, always bursting into sparks and emoting with the weather, but he could barely contain himself then, and he hadn't had anything to help other than fear.

Fear of what would happen next. What he would ruin by losing control next. How little time he had before—Ral embarrassedly beat down his own spiralling thoughts, self-conscious that Jace might glimpse them even by accident.

"Anyways, it was in his shop I built myself my first dampener, and I've never gone without since. I just feel better—I _know_ what to expect—argh, I sound dumb." Ral rolled over so he was back to back with Jace, and and muffled a miserable sigh into the makeshift pillow. A small spread of static sealed any doubt of how he might be feeling.

"No, you don't," Jace whispered. "You don't sound dumb. You… ah, it makes sense. Thank you." _for sharing something so personal, just to try and make me feel better_ , Jace finished, thinking to himself. He knew he'd only embarrass Ral further if he spelled it out, so he kept it to himself, smiling softly as a warm feeling settled in his chest.

Ral decided he'd never give Jace a hard time for his vest again, or at least rarely, but Jace wearing it now did make him silently debate whether he should open his mouth. Emmara had mentioned that the tight belts were fine during the day so long as Jace took occasional breaks—which Ral knew would never happen, but had quickly assured he'd make sure Jace did anyways—and didn't stress his lungs and ribcage overnight—which Ral had _honestly_ said he'd see to since Jace had been in the habit of removing it before bed.

"Uh," Ral dumbly began, then realized he didn't have a good way to start bringing up something that was personal and not really his business, and should have been between Emmara and Jace.

Jace exhaled lightly, an amused note to his following hum as he questionly urged Ral to get on with what he wanted to say.

"I mean, cloak and shirt and whatever you want to wear and smell like a troll later, _fine_ , but… Your vest—Emmara said—"

"I know Emmara's opinion about my vest," Jace interjected a little brusquely.

"I mean, _opinion_ is kind of—"

"Her medical recommendation, then," Jace muttered with a roll of his eyes. Ral was even more pedantic than himself, and it could get a little irritating. With a bit of a resigned growl of frustration, Jace quickly undid his vest and tossed it to the foot of their tent, immediately pulling his cloak closer and curling up on his side in a tighter ball.

Jace glared in no particular direction, but his gaze softened as he sighed. He didn't owe Ral an explanation, but they'd already shared so openly tonight, he felt he might as well say," If I don't have a heavy blanket or something, I feel so open—" _vulnerable_ "—and exposed—" _naked and insecure_ "—without my vest."

Jace gave a small yelp of surprise as the blanket under his head was abruptly pulled out from underneath him. It was quickly draped over him, and Jace protested," You don't have to. Your neck will—"

"Jace, if I didn't want to, I wouldn't, okay? Just promise me you won't let yourself sweat to death. Come out for some air once in awhile or something," Ral said as if he couldn't care less. He settled back on his back, finding it the least uncomfortable without something to prop his head up, and gazed up at the main cord keeping their tent up.

With a large yawn, Ral let his eyes droop. He'd taken such a long nap, and yet he was exhausted. Letting his head flop drowsily so he could see Jace, Ral smirked bemusedly at the pile of wool beside him that made way only for Jace's greasy hair. 

Jace pulled the blanket down passed his face so his breathing was unobstructed. Then, he rolled so the side of his face met Ral's shoulder.

Yanked out of his dozing, Ral stiffened uncomfortably. He'd just been thinking _this_ exactly would be… nice. Ral began to blush. Just how much had Jace read, or was it coincidence? Rolling his eyes at his own frantic wondering, Ral made himself breathe in and out slowly, focusing on keeping the electric tension to a reasonable level.

He gazed back to the rope above, searching for a fixed point to lose focus staring at. Controlled breathing… Relaxing muscle by muscle… Thinking about nothing—Jace's breath was hot and soft against his bare collarbone. Flusteredly chewing his lip, Ral redoubled his efforts to not think about anyth—

Ral caved and tucked his chin to Jace's head, breathing in the scent that had become familiar. It suddenly became simple not loosing unintended bolts of electricity, and that safe, drowsy pull at his eyes had him dozing once more. Sleep followed swiftly.


	24. Chapter 24

When Ral awoke, it was to the beautiful aroma of food.

His eyes were practically glued shut, but he could open them enough to gather Jace was already up and about. Looking to his side, he found the wool blanket folded neatly. Ral squinted at the blanket as if trying to figure out its secrets. His head felt like it was supported by more than the thin padding of their bed roll.

Lifting his head and pulling at the mysterious pillow, Ral pulled out Jace's simple cloak. He held the folded cloak above his face and stared at it, still hazy with sleep and trying to figure out why his brain insisted this was any kind of big deal at all.

 _Oh yeah_ , Ral realized as he stared at it just a moment longer and then brought it to lay on his chest. Jace left his _cloak_ as a make-do pillow. 

Reluctant to actually wake up fully, Ral rolled to his side and placed the cloak back so his cheek smushed into it. He would deny drooling if ever asked, but he certainly did begin to as his eyes blinked slowly and came to resting closed. 

He never got back to fully sleeping, since Jace crawled back into the tent a little later and prompted," Breakfast's ready and we only have twenty minutes to eat it before we head out."

Ral groaned and buried his face. He'd never met a single kor before this journey, but he was beginning to have a fully formed opinion that they were all tireless automatons. They certainly kept pace well enough to be machines.

"That's a stereotype," Jace murmured disapprovingly, but a small smirk caught his lips. He made no effort to correct Ral's conclusion though, sore in every joint from the tireless pace they'd been keeping.

Ral gazed up to Jace with a sleepy grin. "Is the idea that all telepaths are nosy and intrusive a stereotype, too?"

"Well, yes, but that one definitely has its basis in fact," Jace replied with a soft chuckle. "Come on, get your shirt on and come join us for breakfast."

Jace was about to leave, but Ral's hand softly gripped his elbow. Looking back to Ral, who was now sitting up much more alert than he'd shown being capable of thus far this morning.

Ral handed over the plain, navy cloak and kept his eyes trained on it as he mumbled," Your cloak…"

"I felt bad I left you without a pillow, and that blanket is plenty warm," Jace answered the unasked question. He accepted the cloak and quickly let it unfurl, clasping it around his shoulders eagerly.

"Mmm…" Ral wiped the sleep out of his eyes. "I think I might skip breakfast. I'm too tired to move."

He made a move to grab the blanket and pull it to be a pillow once more, but Jace tempted," They may not have coffee, but they have a _very_ strong tea steeping as we speak…"

Oh, Ral's caffeine headache didn't even make it to the top ten list of what ailed him currently, but the revelation that he could curb it and possibly feel more awake and alive to boot had Ral reaching for his shirt and gear.

With a curling smile, Jace said," I'll score you a mug. See you soon."

He left Ral to get ready in peace.

~~  
~~

By the time all the tents had been fully packed and campfires fully extinguished, a light mist had set in, much to the confusion of the kor.

"My skyreader predicted sunny skies," Kirina commented, holding out a hand to feel there was in fact a slight drizzle feeding the hanging moisture in the air. She pressed her lips as her brow furrowed in confusion. The canopy above was too thick to let such light precipitation through.

Jace pulled his hood up and gave Ral a curious, furtive glance. Ral just sighed and nodded miserably. He couldn't help it; he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep on this plane, and every day seemed to be fraught with some new horrific trauma or stress. He couldn't recover emotionally or physically from _anything_ like this. He really needed a couple of days of just—doing science; not doing anything; relaxing or immersing himself in decidedly not this…

Ral covered his face with his hands and groaned softly. He may have just slept an entire night away, but he was so tired.

"A little rain never killed anyone," Jace offered sympathetically

Ral shook his head. "I just—" He glared at Jace pitifully, a silent invite into his head. _I'm so tired and anxious, my anxious energy is draining my energy and making me more tired, which leads to anxiousness which_ —

Jace heaved a sigh and said," I know what you mean." Ral hadn't been able to put it into words, but he was more than a little familiar with how Ral was feeling. He couldn't put it into words easily, either.

Despite trying to lift Ral's spirits and insist that the rain was okay, both of them were trudging grumpily an hour later. Jace's new cloak was far from water resistant, and he was drenched all the way through.

It became rain by midday when they all stopped for lunch. 

Jace sat miserably on a medium sized stone and brought his legs close so he could cover them with his cloak. He may be entirely soaked, but slowing down his continued exposure to the rain helped with how chilled he was. His very bones had begun to ache from the cold dampness.

Reluctantly, the mind mage met his partner's gaze and tapped his head. Ral nodded.

" _This is going to sound awful_ ," he began, chewing his lip," _but the rain didn't start until you woke up… If I knocked you out, would it end the rain?_ "

Ral bristled and snarled," What kind of question is that?!"

" _The kor are only six hours from the town, but they're thinking of setting up camp for the day if it doesn't let up_ ," Jace quickly explained. He probably should have started with that. One problem he often found himself in was that he was the only one in possession of all the known facts in a group. It hadn't immediately occurred to him that Ral didn't know the kors' plans.

Ral gave a hum of acknowledgement but looked away sourily.

" _I—Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—_ "

" _No. I get it._ " Ral got it, and it made sense, but he didn't like it. He didn't like that he was ruining things for both of them because he was a little stressed out. He didn't like that the best solution was to knock his lights out because him being awake was inconvenient. He didn't like that his powers were getting in the way, and Jace's powers were being super damn helpful like they always were.

Looking back to Jace, who wore a concerned look that churned Ral's insides infuriatingly, Ral asked quietly," Where's the town?"

"What?"

"Show me where the mother of rains town is," Ral hissed.

A link was opened in his mind that made the desired information clear. Not just obscure directions that would be hard to follow, but walking through the upcoming directions like falling back on years of experience. Like how Ral might think of completing an intricate circuit and walk through the steps in his head like a checklist of something he'd done a million times.

"I'll see you there," Ral muttered, turning a dial to unrestrict his energy.

"What?" Jace stood up and reached for Ral who looked ready to run.

Ral took a quick step backward out of Jace's reach and held up a hand somewhere between "stop" and "goodbye". Forcing a confident grin, Ral repeated himself," I'll see you there. Try not to keep me waiting."

Jace was deafened as a clap of thunder sounded directly overhead, and thrown to the ground by the winds that suddenly enveloped Ral as he was swept up to the leafy canopy and broke free of the forest.

Jace's call after him was drowned out by the whipping winds and torrential downpour that only picked up with the raging thunder and lightning. Jace grimaced as he pushed himself up to his elbows, sinking further into the mud before someone came over to help him up.

" _Ral, this is stupid_ ," Jace thought hastily, relieved that his link with Ral's head was still strong.

" _Maybe_ ," Ral granted. He flew forward quickly, lightning crackling all about and the storm moving with him.

"What just happ—"

"Give me a second," Jace interrupted some kor rudely, as he reached out and tried to hold onto Ral's mind even more deeply. " _Being held up a day won't be that detrimental! It's just one day. We have all the time in the 'verse to figure out how to get back to Ravnica in our time_ ," he insisted, looking north and skybound as if could somehow make out the storm mage through the thick forest.

" _Get out of my head, Guildpact_ ," was Ral's only response as he pushed himself to go even faster.

Jace panickedly dug deeper, grabbing everything: sensations, feelings, memories, calculations—Ral couldn't make it. Even at his best, he wouldn't make the whole journey, and he _knew_ that. 

The rain coming to a stop around him only made Jace's stomach drop. Ral was moving farther and farther ahead. His mental link could only reach so far. Gritting his teeth, Jace began running blindly forth, ignoring the questions he was bombarded with as he did so. He was vaguely aware that the kor followed, but his primary concern was Ral.

" _Please, you can't make the journey. You know you can't. Just come back._ "

Rage curled through Ral and lashed out in a flurry of lightning strikes. Trees fell beneath him, but he didn't slow down for a second. " _I believe I asked you to get out of my fucking head._ "

" _You can't fly that far, and you know it._ "

" _I have much more experience flying than you, so shut up_ ," Ral dismissed angrily.

" _I know you do_ ," Jace acknowledged. " _And I'm using your experience that you're ignoring to remind you._ "

" _Azor's blood, Jace. Shut up._ "

" _This is ridiculous. Reckless._ " He kept Ral talking so he could dig further into his mind. It was getting harder and harder, but he strained his telepathy as best as he could.

" _I know, a shocking deviation from my usual character_ ," Ral quipped. He could feel Jace's presence drilling into his mind and growled as he resisted it the best he could. A dizzy spell threw Ral down dangerously close to the forest, and he willed himself higher into the air.

" _Ral!_ " Jace tripped as his focus was ripped away by Ral almost impaling himself on tree tops. He fell to the ground roughly, stones and felled branches scratching up his arms and legs, and mud splashing every where including his eyes. He coughed breathlessly, the wind knocked out of him.

"Breyan," someone called as they tried to help him up again.

"Mal is in danger," he cried. "I'm fine. Please go after him. He's about two hours walking ahead now."

"What is happening?" The authority of Kirina's voice brought Jace's attention to her.

"Mal is being a careless bastard and pushing himself for no reason," Jace answered perhaps a little too honestly, and definitely too bitterly.

Jace felt how Ral nearly fell again, and his stomach lurched. " _Ral_ ," he thought staggeredly, concern welling in his chest. He tried to reach in and stop Ral. Make him land and wait for them. He'd been worming his way into Ral's mind, but found it become harder and harder as the distance grew considerably. He integrated his mind the best he could, interlacing their minds for extra support on keeping the link in place.

Feeling it would be his last chance, Jace seized as much of the mind as he still had his mental fingers around and pulled back _hard_. He tried to pull Ral into following his command of landing and waiting it out for the kor to catch up.

Ral yelped with surprise as his control of the winds was interrupted and he desperately called back," _You're going to make me crash, asshole!_ "

Jace relinquished control as he sensed the veracity of Ral's claim. He couldn't bring himself to let go completely, to give up his hold on Ral's thoughts and sacrifice his knowledge of how Ral was doing. He was pumping more and more energy into flying, but Jace could feel that Ral couldn't keep it up forever, and he worried the storm mage would push himself far enough he lost control.

He took back to running as he felt Ral's flight become unsteady, stomach in his throat. He could hear the massive thunder claps ahead even though the storm was so far from them.

" _Well, shit_ ," was all the warning Jace got as his vision went black. He felt his body go limp, but he never felt it hit the forest floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, on that lovely note... 
> 
> Thanks for all of you who have stuck with me as I continue to write this story. This was my entry for last year's NaNoWriMo, where I managed 38,200 words in a month, and it's really rewarding to see how far it's come in the year following. I've been so busy and have been dealing with a lot of mental health issues, but I've managed to double its size and then some (beta'ing a few upcoming chapters I hope to have out soon). 
> 
> Realizing it's almost NaNoWriMo season again made me smile. I probably would have never got this story past three chapters if it weren't for NaNoWriMo. I may have failed the monthly goal, but I got out a lot more words in the long run because I tried, and that's something.


	25. Chapter 25

Ral woke up to hands easing him out of being a tangled mess in the boughs of a tall tree. His clothes were shredded, as was his body. He'd fallen at least a few meters through the treetops before coming to a stop. Looking up wearily, he saw many snapped branches and yet he could not make out the sky. His limbs were caught at wrong angles, stress in his shoulders and knees indicating how pinned he was.

A man—so pale, must be kor—hugged him close and bound him to a safety harness. It was difficult maneuvering around his gear, but nothing such an experienced hookslinger couldn't manage.

Ral felt like he'd been trampled by a bare minimum of three Rakdos processions, and it was hard for him to stay with it, but when he heard "He's finally showing signs of waking up!" and _knew_ it was about Jace, Ral couldn't fall back to black like his drooping eyes had tempted.

"Relax," his savior urged as he tried to get a good look at the ground. Unlike yesterday, Ral actually stilled and made things easier for the man holding him. It didn't take much encouragement to stay still right now. 

Ral pressed his face to the man's chest, trying to defeat the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as they rappelled down the tree and to the ground. Dazedly, he asked," How… How did you find me?" 

"Kirina, she had some kind of… _sense_ of where you were."

As he talked more, Ral realized it was Hakili, and he groaned. He owed this poor man a godsdamned favor or five. Ral grimly thought it might be more like seven as a stray jolt shocked the kor, and he had to assume that wasn't the first one.

As they touched down, others automatically started to take down the safety rope apparatus for Hakili, who was focused on Ral and debating if he could support his own weight. 

Ral wasn't a particularly small man, his muscles forged from long days of hands on engineering in Nivix, but he felt miniscule now, shivering and bloody in Hakili's arms. He couldn't even straighten his fingers and arms, they were so sore and raw. 

Hakili was whispering that it would be okay, but Ral was shaking his head and muttering that he needed to know. He needed to know how Jace was. In his final seconds before plummeting, he'd been acutely aware of Jace's mind, felt almost like it was his.

_Come closer._

Ral's heart skipped a beat. That had to be Jace in his head.

_Come closer._

"I-I need to see Breyan," Ral choked out. 

"Can you even see out of that eye of yours?" New voice—Kirina?—it was a mixture of bemused and pitying.

No, Ral couldn't see very well out of his left eye—he was pretty sure it was swollen shut—and he wasn't seeing much better out of the other one. That didn't matter though, Jace needed him to come to his side. "Well enough," he said earnestly.

"Alright, let's take him to the healing tent," Kirina said, though Ral doubted his plea was a part of the decision at all.

Every step of Hakili's sent pain through Ral's joints and ribs. It was hard to breathe. He'd really messed up this time, hadn't he? Gods, he would never make another impulsive choice ever again.

Ral was barely over finishing that thought when he caught a glimpse of what looked like Jace on the ground and decided he needed to go to his side immediately. His fall to the ground was not remotely graceful, and the whimper that came with it wasn't particularly dignified.

His skin was on fire as he tried to push himself up to crawling, but with how his gear pulled him to the ground at awkward angles he couldn't compensate for, Ral found himself in too far over his head and plunging for the ground once again until Hakili's strong hands grabbed either shoulder, steadying him. His fingers slid along Ral's gritty, grimy, blood soaked clothes and exposed shoulder before finding a hold, and Ral blanched at the pain of one finger sliding into a gouging slash that parted his flesh significantly. The sturdy hands tensed awkwardly at the subconscious zap they received, but Hakili never let go.

_Calm down_ , a thought intruded his mind. Then, it became less of an abstract thought and more of a concrete and willingly communicative thought," _Take my hand._ "

"But my hand is gross," Ral said, too pained to distinguish thoughts from speech.

" _That's fine. Just take my hand_ ," Jace responded, but his face didn't move.

"We don't know what happened to Breyan, but he collapsed shortly after you left, and he hasn't moved at all since," Kirina said.

"Except for a brief shudder once we found you," the medic from before added. He grimly shook his head and continued," He's barely breathing."

Ral looked over Jace, trying to find a hint to some injury that did this to him. He could barely see though, and the mental voice in his head assured him everything was fine. Everything _would_ be fine when he took Jace's hand.

He swallowed hard and reached out shakily. He gripped the other's hand tightly, stomach dropping at how cold Jace was. 

Jace's eyes snapped open, radiating chilling blue light, and he lurched forwards as he sat up with a shrieking gasp as if he'd just survived drowning. Ral's head felt lighter, but he didn't have time to think about it as Jace turned to him and glowered.

"You _idiot_ ," Jace said, tears brimming eyes that were beginning to fade to normal. "You could have died. For what? To shave off a day from our journey?" His anger fell away to concern as he properly took in just how injured Ral was. 

The storm mage felt a light prickle at his brain and he shook his head, letting go of Jace's hand and pulling away slightly. No, Jace had walked through his head too intimately now. He didn't want Jace in his head; it made his stomach churn.

They both tried to apologize at the same time, but neither could get the words out coherently. Both fell silent and Ral looked away.

The awkward tension was tangible enough it could be poked with a stick, and Kirina stepped in to save the day. "Why don't we begin washing and dressing your wounds, Mal? I'm sure Breyan needs some rest."

Ral nodded, grimacing as someone helped him to his feet, though he couldn't support his own weight and needed a person on either side to help him walk to the other side of the large tent. Looking back at Jace, more for show than actually seeing since his sight was blurred and dark, he mumbled," Just give me an hour or something." An hour before even daring to step foot in his head again.

A thin partition was raised, just a simple curtain to give Ral privacy as the medic—Zevan, as he was introduced along the way—helped him strip his bloody clothing and wash the grit out of his many wounds. His shirt had to be cut away.

Begrudgingly, Ral had caved and agreed to take off his gear for Zevan, but now he was practically hyperventilating with how hard he was trying to do breathing exercises to keep from electrocuting the man. When one sweep of the sponge against his skin was the straw that broke the dromad's back, Ral panickedly called out," Jace, the mind thing! D-do the calm mind thing…!"

Jace sat up, ready to run to the other side of the tent with the urgency in Ral's voice, but upon entering Ral's mind, he felt Ral was trying to distance himself as much as he physically could. He tentatively opened a connection between their minds, deciding he could be resentful later that Ral directly rejected him then begged he enter his mind minutes later.

The adrenaline that now coursed through Ral was enough to get him to his feet and teeteringly backing up. It was only because the kor's rope work was so solid that when Ral barreled into the canvas side of the tent, he merely fell to the ground instead of going through it and upsetting the tent's support.

Fingers clawing into the dirt beneath him, Ral released the electricity that had been storing up. Ral cursed to himself at how easily his hands tore into the ground. Too wet. The ground gradient would be so wide. After a second of catching his breath, Ral began to look around quickly, hoping not to catch signs of fire. 

Ral looked back to the medic and asked," Are you okay?"

"F-fine. My knees are just tingling," he answered, sounding understandably confused.

Jace was in his mind, Ral could feel it, but he wasn't doing anything. He felt more confused than the medic seemed. " _What mind thing?_ " He was capable of more than a few "mind things"; Ral would have to narrow it down a bit.

" _The thing you did back in prison_ ," It was only as Ral was answering, he remembered Jace didn't actually have most of his memories from that week. " _You… I don't know how to explain it. We could feel each other's bodies, and our minds were linked, and it felt calm. I was freaking out before, but it made me calm._ "

" _Do you mind if I look at your memories from then so I can tell exactly what I was doing?_ "

Ral froze, his stomach lurching. No, that was around the time his feelings had begun to form, and Jace learning so many times at Emmara's home had lead to their big fight outside the Orzhov church, and—

" _I won't_ ," Jace softly thought, hearing Ral's panicked breathing pick up from the other side of the curtain. " _Just focus on my voice and try not to think of anything else._ "

Ral nodded absently, even though he knew Jace couldn't see it. His breathing slowed as Jace forced it, making him breathe deeper. Ral looked back to the medic and offered a wan smile. 

"I don't handle pain the best," he offered as an excuse. That was a lie. He handled pain better than the average person. He just had a tendency to dole it out in doubled measure when receiving it.

"Well, come back on the mat and we'll clean up your hands again," the medic said with an annoyed huff. He was taking the whole occurrence in stride pretty well. 

Ral crawled back slowly, grimacing at the pain in his knees and hands. He was too embarrassed to look the medic in the eyes after the small shock that could have ended so much worse. As he held his hands out again, he flinched as Zevan reached forward with the wet cloth, but a soothing voice told him," _You won't even feel it_."

Relaxing and letting his shoulders drop from their tensed curl, Ral looked away so he couldn't flinch again. Knowing he wouldn't feel pain didn't stop his brain from imagining he would. "I'm ready," he said softly. He bit his lip nervously, then stopped just as nervously as he realized he couldn't feel how hard he was biting. He might actually hurt himself if he couldn't feel pain.

Jace was still helping him breathe through the anxiety and it was quite easy to ignore the discomfort of being washed by another when he could well up in Jace's mind. " _I'm sorry_ ," Ral hesitantly thought to Jace as he blankly watched Zevan sewing a large gash on his arm shut.

" _You should be_ ," Jace replied a little more acrimoniously than he intended, but honestly, he was mad enough at Ral he felt justified. " _How would you killing yourself get us home any more quickly?_ "

" _Look, I know it wasn't the smartest idea, but—_ "

" _Wasn't the smartest_ ," Jace echoed dryly, cutting Ral off before he could give an excuse. " _Try impulsive and needlessly temerarious._ "

" _I_ know _, Jace. I get it. It was dumb, but—_ "

" _Honestly, what did you even hope to accomplish—_

" _Quit cutting me off_ ," Ral growled back, their shared mindspace becoming uncomfortably warm. " _I was angry, alright? I wasn't thinking rationally at all, and I know that, but at the time it made perfect sense._ "

Both fell silent for a bit. Ral had to lay down on his stomach to allow Zevan to bandage up his injury. It was a miracle he hadn't become paralyzed in the fall. He had a laceration down his back that followed his spine, and he'd been found perched at an awkward angle putting a lot of stress on his back.

" _Angry?_ "

Chin resting on folded arms, Ral glared at the floor. " _Well, sure. You kept prying into my damn head even after I told you not to. That's a pretty good reason to be more than a little mad._ "

" _But you're talking about before that, aren't you_ ," it was a question, but it was thought as a statement.

" _Yes, okay? I was upset, mad, all at once it was too much, and I just had to get out of there._ "

Jace fought back the temptation to draw the curtain so he could see Ral. How hurt Ral's voice was had Jace worried. He didn't think Ral would appreciate being seen so vulnerable though.

" _Mad… at me?_ "

" _No_ ," Ral answered quickly, too quickly. " _I mean, not exactly. More so… at myself, probably. I don't know. Just, shut up. Let's ignore it._ " Ral shifted uneasily, and he heard Zevan chastise him for moving.

" _We can't just ignore and not talk about everything_ ," Jace reasoned.

Speaking from experience, Ral insisted," _Yes, we can._ "

" _That's not—_ "

"I don't really care if it's healthy," Ral bit out sharply, pushing himself up to knees. "Krokt, sorry if I messed up whatever you were working on," he huffed half heartedly to the medic.

"You've been sitting so still through all of this, but that—You should have felt _that_ ," he replied with a touch of horror in his voice.

"What?"

Ral was eased into feeling tactile sensation and pain again and he grimaced at the warm river of blood he felt draining down his side. Tears welled in his eyes, and he fell back to his forearms. He could tell Jace was barely restoring his sense of pain, but it was enough to overwhelm him.

"Krokt," Ral cursed under his breath. He was just messing everything up lately. Like, that wasn't really new to him, but everything seemed even bigger scale than usual.

Zevan tried to assure him that it would be fine, he'd just have to alter the original plan for stitching a little. Ral didn't really care right now. 

" _Jace?_ "

" _What?_ " He sounded distracted.

" _Distract me._ "

No pain wasn't enough anymore.

" _Distract you?_ "

Ral sent an affirmative ping, then explained," _I need to not think about things._ " As he felt his chest get tight and the hairs on the back of his neck rise, he urgently called out," Jace, now!"

When he next blinked, Ral felt feverishly dizzy. He was sitting, his head propped on Jace's shoulder. "Jace," he slurred," What's…"

"Shh," Jace quieted. "I'm listening."

Ral ignored him and asked," Listening to what?" His head felt so foggy, like waking up from an impromptu nap.

"You can't hear—It's important, let me listen."

Ral stayed quiet for a what felt like a really long time, though his sense of time was far from accurate right now, before he asked," Who's Kallist?"

Jace flinched at the question, then muttered," Where did you hear that name?" His voice was cold.

"It's been on my mind since I woke up… When I woke up in the tree," Ral answered tiredly, yawning with the nonchalance due when asking what was for breakfast, not realizing how important the seemingly random name was.

"He's no one."

Ral sat up straight, stretching. He winced as pain broke out all over his body and recoiled quickly, eyes tearing up at the poor choice. He was much more alert after the twinges of pain than he had been prior, the hazy fog in his mind lifting. When he could push the pain out of his mind, he spared Jace a look. Pursing his lips at the desolate expression he found, Ral asked," Who _was_ he?"

"Someone I used to know."

"Lost your memories of?"

"No—Used to know as in… He was dear friend who only died because he knew me. I don't want to talk about him." Jace poignantly looked away from Ral. That wasn't true; he did want to talk about him. Ral wouldn't understand though, and after reading Chandra's memories, he had a feeling talking to her hadn't been fulfilling with someone who didn't know him like Jace did.

"Oh. Sorry." Ral scratched the back of his head awkwardly, doing his best not to mess up the bandage tied around to cover his left eye.

Jace sighed and shared some of the conversation he'd been eavesdropping on just before Ral woke and started their little chat. "They're deciding what to do with us. Some of the tribe says we're using more resources than we're worth. A few are petitioning to simply demand more mizzium from us, and few are in our corner."

The intricate nuance of leadership was interesting to follow. Kirina was obviously the end all, final say, and everyone respected her as such, but every member of the tribe had just as much say in putting their opinion forth and every idea was reasoned equally.

Ral took on a crestfallen slouch as he muttered," I probably freaked them out with my big display, didn't I?"

"You sure didn't endear us," Jace offered diplomatically," Though, my whole fainting into a magical coma act didn't help any either."

Jace rubbed his temples as he considered their options. This wasn't an ideal situation by any means. Ral was so injured, Jace doubted they could make it to the nearby town, even if they both knew how to get there now. However, they couldn't just charm their way into staying with the kor. There were too many to fool all at once, or at least it would be too taxing for him in his current state. He couldn't seclude himself with Kirina and change her opinions, and altering her mind now would garner too much notice from her surrounding comrades who knew her like family.

" _We can't turn our backs on those we've sworn to help, and now they are practically defenseless… If we have sworn to heal this world, it starts with making sure we don't lose to the savage impulse of continuing missions with no moral heed, lest we become like the monstrous gods that laid waste to our world in the first place._ " Kirina's thoughts lined up almost exactly with the words echoing in the listeners' minds. She spoke honestly and righteously as she fought for helping those less fortunate.

" _But they've burned through all of our allotted healing for rest of the moon's cycle! Mal shocked Zevan, his knees are singed!_ " One of the close kor debated, but when double checking his thoughts, his motivations were born of fear: _these outsiders have tremendous power and we can't hope to understand their whim_.

"So, why did you go into a magical coma?"

Jace continued to listen attentively to the kors' debate, having to sacrifice a little of the attention Ral probably deserved. "I left a large piece of my mind in your head," Jace abstractedly answered.

"You what?"

It took Jace a second before he registered that Ral had asked him for more information and he looked over a little caught off guard and struggled to expound," Well, I integrated our minds quite a bit so I wouldn't lose track of you, and when you fainted, so did I, but I hadn't collected all of my mind… So I didn't have the wits left to reverse what I'd done. You needed to return it physically."

"What was that earlier about _me_ being _reckless_ and endangering my own well being _temerariously_? You know the words impulsive and careless would suffice, right?"

"I've been told I can be rather pretentious," Jace said dryly, rolling his eyes. Ral was so distracting, and he was listening to something important. He might have to act and save them both if the council came to the decision that they weren't worth protecting anymore… 

Even though it didn't actually make eavesdropping easier, Jace found himself looking in the general direction of the meeting as he listened in.

As Jace read that Ral was about to agree, he shot Ral an amused glare and pointed out," And so can you."

Ral shrugged the best he could. The gesture hiccuped and Ral curled up on himself uneasily. He had stitches and bandages _everywhere_. He reached out blindly to Jace, his eye screwed shut and his stomach doing somersaults. Jace's soft hand found his calloused one and squeezed reassuringly. Then squeezed too hard, but Ral couldn't fault him with the current of electricity going through it.

Ral cursed breathlessly. "Where's my gear?"

"You, uh, can't wear it right now. It would tear open your wounds."

"You sound like you haven't even gotten to the bad news," Ral said with a low, dangerous voice. Jace better not hold out on him…

"Well, you haven't actually looked at your gear since falling, have you?"

"Of course I haven't," Ral said, panic rising in his voice. "I can barely see."

Silence. 

Stomach dropping, Ral ordered," Tell me, Jace."

"The piece you wear across your back looks pretty mangled, and—" Jace broke off as it took too much attention to halt a stray bolt threatening to travel his arm to his chest. "There's a pretty bad dent and puncture in the gauntlet…"

Jace hurriedly took Ral's cheek in his other hand and whispered," It's okay, we'll work it out."

Even with Jace's sudden full presence in his mind, Ral felt himself melting down. Not his gear. Anything but his gear. That was his pride and joy, the amalgamation of all of his years of self improvement with the Izzet League, the singular thing he loved and took care of more than anything else, including his own body.

Ral could feel himself drawing mana he didn't mean to, the red burning mana twisting unstably with cold blue mana and wanting to spark out and rain and send roaring winds tearing this tent apart and—Every bubbling burst of uncontrollable mana was quashed, and Ral found himself mesmerized by Jace's glowing eyes.

"I've seen you take that equipment apart down to its bare bones and put it back together dozens of times. You've worked on it for so long, you don't need blueprints to know exactly where every nut and bolt goes. We can rebuild it," Jace said forcibly, having to work to get his message heard through the layers of magic wrapping and suppressing each new wave of sorcery. 

Ral couldn't tell if Jace was speaking verbally or mentally, none the less, it was exactly what he needed to hear. He brought a hand up to the hand cupping his cheek. He was hyperventilating, but as he continued to stare into Jace's eyes, and the words of encouragement echoed in his mind, Ral's breathing slowed. 

It was still erratic, the wracking gasps that come just before breaking out into full on sobbing, but it was evening out a little more with each breath. 

The burnt smell of ozone overpowered the tent, and both mages looked spent. Jace's hand pulled away from Ral's jaw so that he could hold his own head, a splitting headache setting in. 

Jace groaned and mumbled," They're on their way over. I don't know what they've chosen to do." His head hurt too much to focus on other's fully formed thoughts. All he had was a general presence coming their way, maybe five people.

The fresh air of Zendikar swept into the tent as the flap was pulled open, making it a little more pleasant to breathe. Jace struggled to look at the group coming in, his head protesting the steep angle of looking up, but he met Kirina's gaze and welcomed her.

"How are you feeling, Breyan and Mal?"

"Just great, best I ever have," Ral answered flippantly. He rubbed at his—good wasn't the right word— _better_ eye in reaction to the mental nudge he got. "I mean, the uh, herbs are really helping, thank you."

"You've come to tell us if you'll still help us," Jace acknowledged. He felt Kirina's mind wanting them to come clean with their powers.

"Yes," Kirina said," And I had a feeling you would know what we were discussing. I could… feel your presence."

"I can hear people's thoughts," Jace admitted, giving away as little as he could while still telling the truth.

"I think you can do a little more than that," Kirina said, her voice full with authority and clearly laying an expectation they speak more. "We want to help you," she continued," But you must be honest with us. We need to know who we are helping."

Jace and Ral exchanged a furtive glance, and Jace decided, as the one who had the most experience with Zendikari, to speak up. Clearing his throat, Jace began," We're not of Zendikar. We're from a different world, Ravnica, and we're stuck here. Not permanently, but Mal—Ral Zarek, actually—needs to recharge to get us back."

"To the stars?"

Jace looked to the man who asked and shook his head. "Not quite. It's hard to explain."

"Our world has its own stars. It's a completely different realm of existence," Ral expounded.

"Like the Saviors of Old." Kirina had a look of solemn understanding. "Like our Worldwaker and her friends. You remind me of the Mindweaver. He too could read minds. He could change people's beliefs, and knew the secrets of the hedrons. Us Kor look up to him, the man who could understand the hedrons we have long looked to as our world's revelation."

" _You're blushing_ ," Ral thought at Jace, and not surprisingly, that wasn't helpful in keeping Jace's blush under control. Jace glanced at him, but Ral wasn't being secretive at all in looking Jace's way, having to compensate for his eye being out of commission, and wearing a shit eating grin.

With a screwed up attempt at a neutral face and pointedly looking _not_ at Ral, Jace said," The Saviors of Old… We don't know the stories told of them since we're from off plane."

Hakili was among the small group come to talk to the planeswalkers. He stepped forth a little and asked," Plane?"

"Our word for the various worlds…" Jace felt rather stupid as he realized he was giving up information so freely. It was the vice grip of a headache he was suffering that was at fault, for sure. That's what he'd blame when Ral gave him flac later.

Kirina smiled lightly, then nodded to her right and said," We're camping here for the night before setting out early morning, so perhaps we can share a few tales. Our Chronicler can surely be persuaded into recounting her favorites."

"We'd like that very much."

Kirina nodded graciously, then asked," So, Breyan, if your dear partner is Ral Zarek, who are you really?"

Jace really didn't want to lie. He really, really didn't want to lie… but if they still told tales of the the Mindweaver, they might still remember his name. "Barrim," he answered," Barrim Zarek."

" _Way to finally tell the truth, Mr. Zarek_ ," Ral snarkily whispered in his mind, and Jace fought the impulse to roll his eyes.

"We'll be having dinner in an hour," the woman to Kirina's right said," I would love to tell the tale of the Flamecaller."

"Thank you, Mera," Kirina said. "We'll leave you two to prepare for dinner in peace."

The five kor left the tent, and the sudden silence hurt Jace's head almost as much previous noise. He must have given away his pain and nausea by doubling over a little, because Ral's hand was quick to squeeze his shoulder.

"You okay, Jace?"

"Fine," Jace said dismissively," Just a bit of a headache."

"A bit? You look a little pale and like you took a mean right cross."

The prickle of static and his hair rising was surprisingly soothing. The lingering ozone wasn't offensive either, and Jace found himself inhaling deeply, trying to center himself. "It's not too bad, but I think some rest would really help. Mind waking me when it's time for dinner?"

"No, I think I'll let you starve," Ral answered flatly.

"Thanks," Jace said appreciatively, hearing the real answer behind his sarcasm.

He laid back down, moaning with relief as the change in orientation relieved stress on his neck and lessened his headache ever so slightly. Then, he felt weight press gently on his forehead and discomfort lessened even more with the weight becoming cold. "What are—?"

"I'm better with heat, electricity and all, but there's more than one kind of storm," Ral murmured, not letting his voice break the threshold and causing Jace any more discomfort than he already suffered. He continued to draw heat, letting his hand act as a cold compress.

Taking solace in the cold, Jace drifted to sleep.


	26. Chapter 26

The kor were still helping them, content with how much information Jace and Ral spared. They still hid much, certainly not admitting to timewalking, but they explained that Ral's powers controlled the weather sometimes, and that Jace was capable of connecting to people's minds intimately—how he'd found and led Kirina to Ral.

It would have only been four hours of walking, but they took time for a relaxed breakfast. That was when Jace learned of the kors' purpose for their pilgrimage. He knew that even during his time, it had been a well established tradition to travel the world for their religion.

The tradition had changed in the wake of the Eldrazi. So much life had been lost, so many fields and forests and lakes and all the life that went with the natural world had been decimated. It needed to be reborn, and the Worldwaker made it happen, but the world needed to be nourished just like any newborn.

The kor traveled from sacred location to the next to leave offerings. Days of solemn meditation and spell weaving to leave behind magical energy and spur the hedrons to do their repurposed task. Provide a slow and constant stream of mana to a world that had found itself drained.

It was a cycle.

Most scholars that Jace had read from on many planes recognized that mana was drawn from the land. Bodies of water, mountainous peaks, marshy bogs, thriving jungles, and sprawling steppes—the world supplied a finite amount of energy that would be used and settle back into the cycle.

The Eldrazi had upset this cycle, destroying and making the lands uninhabitable, hostile and devoid of certain energy. The glacial continent of Sejiri, the strong jungle of Bala Ged, and so much else had been lost, leaving mana displaced outside of the cycle, unattainable.

_We cannot call the void_ , Kirina had said, _but as the land heals, the void will settle again_.

By pouring all of their energy into healing the world, they were reclaiming what had been stolen and left out of reach—in the heavens, according to the kor.

It was fascinating, and Jace wrote down all they told him earnestly. It gave him hope that Zendikar would be fully healed someday.

It was what lead to the rationing of magic, even healing magic. They promised Ral that they would pay for his healing once they got to town, even after Ral and Jace asked if they really wanted to spend more resources on them. Jace found it embarrassing, but Ral accepted the good fortune willingly, as Kirina explained they admired them and likened their planeswalking status to The Heroes of Old.

The walk to town was excruciating for Ral, but he refused to be carried anymore, both because of his sense of pride and his worry he may electrocute someone. He walked at the back, giving a wide berth to everyone, including Jace. When they finally arrived, Ral was so exhausted he passed out in his own little corner of the tavern they stopped at. 

Jace was sitting with Kirina and her Chronicler, Mera. "So there's a hedron site three miles from here?" Hedron sites were where the kor meditated and gave to enlarging the cycle.

"Yes, we'll leave behind our supplies and elders and pray today, then hit the road at dawn to reach the next site within a week," Mera confirmed. Akoum had always been home to small villages where guides could be rented, but now it was mostly home to towns that supported a local hedron site.

An elf came to their table and brought them their drinks. "Here you are, and I got food packed up for your departure tomorrow," he said, laying out a glass of cheap wine in front of each of them. Many provided for any kor on a pilgrimage; it was seen as a service to the world.

"Thank you," Kirina said," we will most appreciate the sustenance. We're off to Sejiri."

"Do you have enough furs?"

Mera nodded and said," Just enough, but that's all we ever need."

"You help each other out," Jace observed, looking around the tavern with a small smile. It was very diverse, and it was just a town bar, unlike the guide service like he'd initially expected.

"We have to. Zendikar is only just making a comeback. Bala Ged didn't shake off its scars until seventy years ago, and New Sejiri is even younger. Resources we have are scarce," Mera said sagely. 

Sejiri with its hostile weather conditions took longer for the Worldwaker to save. It was less straightforward—how did one regrow an arctic desert? And according to the kor, magic became rare and an extremely limited resource that took establishing open communication to navigate around until the last few decades.

It was hard to believe the jungle could grow to be so healthy and vital in just the last seventy years. It had started from seedlings and when the Worldwaker finally freed it of Edlrazi marking. Their pilgrimages had to really change the world.

"I wish I could give back," Jace commented abstractedly, thinking of Zendikar's amazing recovery from what he still felt extremely guilty in contributing to. "As an ecologist," he quickly tagged on," I'm an environmentalist." 

"It would be sacrilegious for you to meditate with us without markings," Kirina said, holding a hand to her chest, where an elaborate design was tattooed into her skin.

"Of course, I didn't mean to—"

"We would have to shave your head," Mera said, a thoughtful pout coming to her lips. "To capture your spirit with the paint."

Jace involuntarily ran a hand through his hair. "Paint?"

"It's customary for those who marry in to attend at least one meditation," Kirina explained, her thoughts specifying to mean any non-kor who married into a kor family. "And guests of _honor_ ," she dipped her head lightly to Jace," are certainly welcome if they follow all of our customs."

A quick look into Kirina's head told him all of the customs he'd be expected to follow, and he didn't bother to hide his looking. His hand brushed through his hair again, coming to rest holding the back of his neck uncertainly. Was he willing to do all of what he'd seen? For Zendikar's future, yes. It was simple enough what they would ask of him, and he owed Zendikar a debt. Anyways, hair grew back, and he had his illusions in the meantime.

"I would be honored," Jace decided," But I can't just leave Ral behind…"

"Oh, Barrim, I thought you would have read that too," Kirina said lightly. "We'll have an elder watch over him, provide anything he needs."

Her words were true, he knew so even before he verified her intentions with his magic. "Thank you for this… this opportunity," he said, his words heartfelt.

Mera smiled and said," Thank you for volunteering your strength. It will be grueling, but we hope it brings you a sense of connection."

With his involvement, they had to cut their friendly drinking short, now having to prepare the ceremony for Jace before their prayer in two hours. Jace wrote a short note detailing where he would be and why, ripping it from his journal and leaving it tucked under Ral's elbow. He'd fallen unconscious just like he tended to in his lab, head resting in the crook of his left arm over the table, and it sent a pang of homesickness through Jace's heart.

First came purification, a cold bath with special herbs in the water. On a pilgrimage, bathing was a rare luxury, opportunity only coming with a lucky stream or staying at an inn for a night or two, but before receiving markings, one had to be utterly clean, physically and spiritually. 

He was then given only a small leather skirt that almost reached his knees and made to stand arms spread out so several kor working in tandem could shave and paint his body. Anywhere that needed paint, including half his head, his chest, his arms, and his legs were were shaven, and gritty paint soon followed. Intricate lines, draconic runes he secretly knew, were drawn across his body to mimic the hedrons.

Jace was extremely uncomfortable at first, worried they may comment on how patchy his body hair was, outlining the numerous burn scars. He never grew truly comfortable, but he was able to distract himself by watching their careful work. They were silent and serious, not goofing off with body paint, but adhering to their long, proud history and just trying to get him ready for sacred meditation.

He wasn't allowed a shirt in order to protect the paint, and as a newcomer it was custom he didn't get any shoes on his first walk to a hedron site. When he was walked outside to begin the short journey, he noticed one elf had joined the party as well, also with no shoes.

She was completely clean shaven for her head markings, and Jace idly wondered how they knew which markings went with what people. Mera had commented that they needed to capture his spirit, but that seemed too ambiguous to him.

No one was allowed to speak on the journey there, to symbolize how they preserved energy for this ritual. Even the kors' minds were quiet for the most part, wholly focused on the journey and their holy purpose. The elf's mind was bright with curiosity and nervous of sticking out, much like he was. She was surefooted though, he observed, and he made a careful effort to follow her exact steps to prevent stepping on stray stones and branches or worse, the prickly plants he'd accidently found a few times now.

After how much walking he'd recently done, this three mile hike seemed like nothing. It didn't hurt that he was genuinely curious and excited to be a part of the ceremony.

Jace marveled at the hedron arrangement when they reached it, amazed by its beauty and clever design. A lot of work and careful consideration had been put into the positioning of each hedron.

Jace and the elf were made to sit by the lowest hedron, sitting on their feet carefully so as not to smudge their paint. Kirina and Mera took either side of the newbies, each offering one guidance for the rest of the proceedings. How to hold one's hands, what angle to bow the head at—every part of this meditation was prescribed. 

Once all the small details were squared away however, the rest was simple. Jace poured his energy forth into the cold stone his hand was gently pressed against. He could feel it all around, a massive drawing of mana to each hedron. He tried to match the pace of Kirina, noticing shyly that he'd started out too fast and being wary of exceeding everyone else too quickly. 

Many kor and the elf finished early on, left to contemplate tranquilly as the others continued. Jace picked up his pace when he realized almost everyone was done, save only Kirina, the medic, and three other mages.

Magic users had become rare, and even those naturally gifted hadn't excelled at the craft for well over a century; while magic was returning, the lack of true magic users could still be felt with so few to train the new generations.

Jace gave slightly too much mana, feeling it like one would being depleted of blood and becoming slightly dizzy as he leaned back and waited for the meditation to be done. While he had been calling on the world's mana, Jace had felt it. He had felt the connection the kor had preached. He didn't feel it as spiritually as they did, more communal than a religious experience, but it was comforting. 

To be part of a group for a goal so simple but profound was a novelty in his life. He would surely miss puzzles and challenges and the craziness of city life if he settled down into a rigorous but simple life like theirs, but he was glad he could experience it and give a little back to Zendikar as well.

After meditation was over, Kirina said a few words, and prayer was over. He was offered sandals, which he eagerly accepted, and it became okay to speak. 

"You are a powerful mage," Kirina said, falling in with him as they began to walk back to the tavern.

"I have a lot of practice," Jace said humbly.

"You sell yourself short. I'm not used to being in such a strong mage's presence," she said," I'm a little surprised you and your friend needed our help."

"Entering a plane can be exhausting," Jace explained. "And our entrance was a hasty one. We weren't prepared to leave our last plane. That can be deadly."

"So you were recovering from a… planeswalk, was it?"

"Yes," Jace confirmed, his stomach flipping. The Zendikari seemed to handle the revelation of other worlds well, perhaps because after the hardship of living on their own, it was almost an escape to imagine spending time elsewhere. It still made Jace uncomfortable to admit and freely talk about planeswalkers existing to someone who was planebound.

Kirina looked up to the sky, eyes drawn to the twinkle of lights beginning to light up as the moon rose. "Fascinating," she breathed, clearly imagining walking to another world herself.

Jace kept himself from commenting it brought him a lot of trouble and let her imagination run free. He was too exhausted for much conversation anyways. Walking one foot in front of another was agony, and he was content just to look back on the amazing opportunity he'd been included in and let his head droop with his drowsiness.

"Thank you for letting me be a part of this," he whispered, feeling that Kirina was regarding him once more.

"Thank you for taking part. Your contribution was immense."

"I'm just glad to help."

"As are we," Kirina said, looking over her people with a proud smile.


	27. Chapter 27

Ral woke up hazily. Everything hurt. Why did everything always hurt?

His eyes fluttered open, revealing a small but cozy tavern room. Something much nicer than they could afford.

He tried to push himself upright, but his arms hurt too much. _Mother of rains, that really, really hurt._

With a deep sigh, Ral lazily looked around. Hm, like ten in the morning if he had to guess by the sun coming through the window.

" _Nine, actually_ ," Jace corrected.

Jace felt… close by? It was interesting to think about the loudness and proximity of thoughts, but he was starting to get the hang of it.

" _Just outside the door._ "

Ral looked to the door, and sighed as his gaze halted on the broken gear that was laid out across the floor. His stomach sank at the sight of it. The glass was broken, and the smooth curves of its plating were interrupted and jarring.

" _That's what I was thinking we might be able to work on a little today._ "

Ral put the first actual effort into communication yet that day and asked," _Why are you still out there?_ " As soon as he asked, he felt he remembered. He had a vague recollection of late last night sending lightning someone's way.

" _I thought it might be in my best interest to make sure you were fully awake before I approached this time_ ," came the sheepish answer, and Ral was pretty sure that was Jace's way of saying, _please don't shock me_.

Ral nodded to himself, then finally managed to push himself to sitting up. Holding his head in his hand while he yawned, he called out," Yeah, come on in."

As Jace opened the door and entered the room, Ral's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You got a haircut."

Jace smiled timidly as he ran a hand over the side of his head that was shaved to the scalp. "Part of their customs for giving life back to Zendikar," he said, clearly a little self-conscious with such a bold haircut. A good quarter of his hair was gone at least, the exact end of the shaved area covered by hair falling in over it.

"Looks good on you," Ral said, then smirked and said," Just surprised me since you're such a square."

All timorousness was gone as Jace defensively retorted," I'm not a square."

Ral shrugged his shoulders with a roguish grin, before wincing and resting a hand on his ribs. He tucked his chin as if taking up less space meant he could be in less pain.

"How are you feeling?" Jace's voice was instantly soft and concerned. "They'd healed up a fair amount of your injuries, but there's not enough mana to go around to get them all…"

Ral looked up curiously. "I thought you said this plane's magic was wild."

"It is. Was," Jace came in father into the room and took a seat on a wooden rocking chair. "What's left is still strong. The Eldrazi attack swallowed over half the world though. The Zendikari have to ration the use of their magic to accommodate."

Wow. Ral knew the Eldrazi had been bad news—visions of Emrakul had been _terrifying_ —but to sit down and think of how devastated this world actually had been made Ral grimace. What kind of destructive force could _ruin_ a plane's mana supply?

"It's gotten a lot better in the last handful of decades though," Jace said brightly. "Zendikar just might make a fully recovery." Jace's hopeful smile faltered, and tagged on under his breath," It only took seven generations."

"Seven generations is better than never," Ral said gruffly, wanting to be consoling but not really sure how.

"I know."

Ral didn't feel up to getting off his bed yet, even for something he cared so much about like taking care of his gear. He was too tired and sore.

Jace observed how Ral looked back down to his pillow wistfully, and spoke up," We don't have to work on leaving this minute. We have plenty of time."

"Oh?"

"Turns out the mizzium we have left over is enough to provide room and board for almost a month, and they like us. Aren't even making us pay for the first couple of days."

"What, why?"

Jace looked away embarrassedly and admitted," I might have overdone it last night. Apparently I was able to draw mana enough for five people at the ceremony." He was a mage from a world and time when he'd never had to learn restraint. He'd never had to restrict the growth of his metaphysical ability.

"Way to be a showoff," Ral said, chuckling at how Jace pouted his way.

"I wasn't trying to show off," he petulantly objected.

"I'm glad it seems to have gone well," Ral said, yawning as he eased himself back down to rest some more. He'd gotten Jace's note when he woke last night, but he hadn't been able to stay awake long enough to actually ask Jace how it went when he got back.

A wondrous look captured Jace's eyes as he peered out the window to Zendikar's beautiful landscape. The jungle was close, but this area was much less dense, and Akoum's mountains were visible on the horizon. "It was amazing."

Ral regarded Jace warmly, finding it so strange but oddly heartwarming how much Jace could care about this other world that wasn't his. Was he just a bad planeswalker? Were most planeswalkers like Jace, able to feel a connection to new lands? He was glad that Jace was able to help this world a little more if really meant so much to him; Jace was practically glowing just _thinking_ about last night's ceremony and his attendance.

Jace tilted his head and laughed as he saw Ral slipping back into sleep so easily. "Rest is probably best for you right now," he said softly.

Ral sleepily hummed in response, his eyelids already closed.

"Do you think… Would you mind if I joined you?"

Ral cracked open his eyes and looked to Jace questioningly. He saw the bags under Jace's eyes though, once he was paying full attention, and he could tell he wasn't the only tired soul.

Jace scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, looking away as he explained," I… couldn't sleep well last night."

Nightmares, Ral understood the admission to mean.

"Hmm…" Ral breathed in deeply and felt the slight crackle of static as he moved. Manageable, probably. "Let's find out," he said, scooting over and patting the open space beside him. "Warning, stay at your own risk."

Jace stood up, forcing himself to do so slowly and not seem desperate. Risking waking up to a bit of a shock seemed worth the peace of mind to actually get through more than an hour without waking up. He unclipped his cloak, leaving it on the chair, and headed over, sitting on the bed but waiting to lay down. Ral was still thinking over letting Jace and him share a bed in his present condition, and Jace wanted to give him the time to wholly decide it was okay.

"I don't want to shock you," Ral said, nervously running his suddenly clammy hands on the soft linen nightshirt the kor had forced him into last night. 

Jace reached for Ral's hand and confidently said," You won't." The tingling that broke out in his hand was an odd sensation, but it wasn't the slightest bit painful. 

Ral pulled away. "A small amount of amps is still dangerous during long periods of time."

"Static isn't."

"The Izzet can change that opinion rather quick," Ral said, more for the sake of arguing than anything. He took Jace's hand again, though. 

Jace trusted him, and Ral didn't know what to do with that information. He couldn't really remember ever having another's trust like that. Perhaps he ought to trust Jace's intuition. "Maybe you could go into my head. Like you did back on Ravnica, or how you did back at camp," he proposed, the suggestion being more of a request.

"Sure," Jace murmured, pressing his mind against Ral's without a second thought. There was no alteration in this magic, just touching the shape of another's mind. It was deeply comforting, like hugging someone after receiving bad news. He didn't think Ral would find it so comforting, used to others being wary of his magic, and it pulled at his chest in a funny way that Ral would want him to reach out like this.

Ral sighed again, feeling a little more confident. He nodded to Jace, trying to force his worries to the back of his head. He couldn't help but feel he was toying with Jace's life. His heart hammered, and even with all his focus on suppressing his mana, he couldn't help the small static shocks he gave Jace as the mind mage's shoulder brushed his.

Ral laid stiff as a board as Jace curled an arm around his stomach. When had this become normal? How had it become normal? He never opened up to anyone, and he sure didn't comfort others either. Yet, now with their mental link, he felt Jace's feeling of safety, how he held on tight to keep the nightmares away.

He bit his lip and tried to relax. The shape of Jace's mind—he had never been aware that minds had shapes—helped, and he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

~~  
~~

Several expletives of varying vulgarity were swiftly spun into existence as Ral tossed a piece of his guantlet's hull across the room. He glared at Jace as he was denied the satisfying crash it should have caused, Jace having slowed it down with telekinesis.

"Not fucking more _silver_ and _gold_. Azor's blood, I might as well be _guildless_ ," Ral snarled.

As he was taking the plate off his gauntlet, it was easily noticed that many of the inside components had suffered in the fall. 

First, he'd started with his dampener, which had luckily had minimal damage. It wasn't going to look pretty until he could get in a proper lab and ease out the dents and polish up the hull where it'd taken some serious abrasive impact. Overall integrity was slightly compromised, but he'd just have to be careful with it. Treat it a _little_ more delicately.

His capacitor on the other hand, had been _severely_ damaged from his fall. Most of the broken pieces were unsalvageable, being comprised of materials such as glass. This plane did not have the technology to shape glass into a perfect tapering cylinder, or at least he'd had no proof thus far. Parsing out more of their limited mizzium supply, they'd been able to order some pure silver—not exactly his first choice, but when he'd asked for platinum at the local store—one store for everything a townsperson could need, imagine that—he'd received vacant looks.

He hadn't even began to explain his need for gold leaf— _real_ gold leaf.

Now he was dealing with the painful process of stripping his gauntlet down to its bare bones and realizing he'd need to sacrifice much of the outer plating to replace its innards. It would be more cost effective to just sell the mizzium plating and use its revenue to pay for materials and housing, and save the small amount of workable mizzium they had to make the parts that _must_ be cast in mizzium.

To say he was incredibly hindered by not having a full working lab and personal furnace was an understatement.

"I'm sorry, Ral," Jace said with a small frown, reaching to squeeze Ral's shoulder sympathetically.

"Don't," Ral warned, flinching away. It was a bad day.

Jace quietly withdrew his hand and crossed his arms, taking a look of thoughtfulness as he gazed at the gutted gauntlet. "Perhaps we can make do with—"

"I've already thought of everything, Guildpact," Ral spat, falling back on distant terms out of frustration. He didn't want to be anyone's friend right now. His pride and joy was being outfitted with worthless materials like gilt silver, and it was his own damned fault.

Jace clamped his mouth shut, recognizing anything he could try and say would be fruitless right now. His eyes slid to the door as he considered just leaving. Everyday thus far had been like this, and while sympathetic to Ral's anguish, a week of being treated like an unwanted nuisance was about his breaking point. The threshold would be lower if it were anyone else.

Small sparks exploded from Ral as he ran both hands through his hair defeatedly. And it wrenched Jace's heart to see him like this, it did, but he needed some time not being yelled at. Jace wordlessly began to walk for the exit, only to be halted by a small," Wait."

He looked back, nonplussed and more than a little pushed to his limits by Ral's antics.

Ral crumpled in the chair, burying his head on his desk he'd been glued to for the last week. "Shit, I'm sorry."

He raised himself enough to support his forehead with one propped hand. "Sometimes my brain doesn't let me… I'm not trying to be an asshole."

"I know," Jace said quietly as he let his gaze fall to the floor. He could feel how today Ral's mind was whirling faster, out of control. His thoughts always tripped over each other, but sometimes it was because they were dragging their metaphysical feet, and sometimes it was like today, where they were punching each other out.

"I need an hour to myself," Jace confessed. "But when I come back, why don't we do something… _else_?"

"We need my gauntlet to be working again. I'm in the zone, I should use my focus and keep working on—"

Jace held up a hand and said," You've been concentrating on this for four days straight. Let's take a break, a fresh mind is better than an overworked one."

Ral didn't like it, not at all, but he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Fine," he said shortly," What will we do?"

With a cheeky smile, Jace said," Deciding _what_ can be the first thing we do."

Scoffing at Jace's sudden pompous air, he playfully tossed a spark and mumbled," Get out of here."

"I'll be back," Jace promised.

Ral looked away sullenly, but reluctantly looked back. Exhaling softly, he whispered sincerely," Thank you."


	28. Chapter 28

Ral was surprised when he heard the door creak open. Had it been an hour already? He'd been so hyperfocused, the world around had fallen away. He felt exhausted, but that might be because he had barely slept over the last few days. As much as he wanted to hang out with Jace on whatever magical adventure they put together, he was drained, and it was tiring to imagine doing much of anything.

Ral set down what he was working on dejectedly. He had spent the last hour looking at nothing else but his gauntlet, but he acknowledged he didn't really accomplish much. Certainly not an hour's worth.

Turning around to face the door, he asked," So, what's the plan?"

Jace reached forth mentally, touching the weariness Ral carried and smiled sympathetically. "You're exhausted. We don't need to do anything. We can just call it a night." He'd consider it a success if he got Ral to sleep more than five hours.

"No, no. You're right. I should do something other than this," Ral quickly interjected. He pushed his gauntlet back to prove his enthusiasm.

"Sure, what sounds good?"

Ral pushed his chair back and stood, stretching the best he could with his dampener and capacitor. They had to be the first thing to be fixed, since he couldn't store his magic up enough to use the upgraded gauntlet without his inventions' assistance anyways and they greatly assisted in daily living. His gauntlet was really only for fighting and science that was too beyond this plane.

"Maybe walking a bit. My joints are ridiculously stiff," Ral decided. They could come up with something to do while they stretched their legs.

"The wind is a bit brisk tonight, but it's still pretty warm."

Ral got dressed in actual pants that needed tying and a shirt with a collar, a definite change from his recent habit of just staying in pajamas and changing into pajamas. He'd reasoned if his clothing wasn't going to offer any better protection from a malfunction, why bother changing? The clothing they'd been provided was no Izzet-grade work clothes. The pants didn't even tie above the natural waist! No sane artificer allowed such sensitive areas to be just two or three inches from the band of their work pants…

"Ugh, my hair," Ral lamented as he ran a hand through the mess. It had grown out of his preferred length over their long journey, and it was hard enough to make it look kempt now without the added help of four days of being unable to focus on anything but his work. Going out quickly seemed less enticing. He stroked the beard that had began to fill in a few weeks ago and pouted, thinking he may want to see to cleaning up a little.

Jace raised one hand and muttered something under his breath before speaking up," I don't know what you mean."

Realizing Jace had raised an illusion, Ral whistled and said," You lucky bastard." He couldn't imagine having such prowess with illusions. That had to completely change how one lived their life. As did most magic, he supposed a moment later.

Leaving the drawstrings at his chest undone, Ral walked shoved his hands in his pockets and spared one last glance at his gauntlet. Ignoring the sudden desire to continue working on it despite that action almost certainly leading to hours of just frustratedly staring at it, Ral took to Jace's side and they headed out for their walk.

They made their way out of the rural town and down a dirt path that took them through some thin woods, taking it to the edge of small cliff where they could see the darkening sky in full. The little clearing had a log that had obviously been pulled over to provide a perfect spot for watching the sun set or, more likely, paying more attention to one's partner.

"I'm touched, Beleren, but we don't have to put up appearances out here," Ral joked, sitting on one corner of the make-do bench.

"I didn't know this spot was here. I've spent most of my time at the library when not helping you," Jace said, smiling embarrassedly as he took the other side.

Breathing deeply, Ral looked out over the expansive forest that cloaked the hills in this area. Sitting in a glade was still kind of surreal when he'd spent so much of his life avoiding it. It was the chaotic growth of the trees, all roughly the same age but not planted with grid-like precision that shattered the pretense of holiness.

A part of him wished to planeswalk then and there and just forget timewalking all together. Sure he'd be behind on the latest tech, but he was Ral Zarek, one of the quickest guildmages to rise through the ranks of the Izzet League. He'd make do just fine. The whole issue of leaving Ravnica without her Guildpact for a century and a half was problematic, but the Izzet would stay strong, and that was all that really mattered, right?

"We'll make it back," Jace promised.

Ral raised one eyebrow suspiciously as he looked over.

Jace shook his head softly then explained," You just look really solemn. I figured you're probably thinking of Ravnica. I know I am."

Ral just nodded, a little too exhausted to continue the conversation.

They sat and watched the sky turn orange, then pink, then finally settle to a dark navy before being fully enveloped in darkness. Zendikar's stars were so bright, and Ral found it kind of breathtaking. He couldn't remember the last time he properly star gazed.

He would have never actually let his gauntlet rest for a moment if left to his own devices, and even just this hour or two was so recharging. He wondered how far Jace had to dig to know this was exactly what he needed, or if Jace just had made an intuitive guess.

"If I crosswire the mana-coil and transistor relays, I'll be able to salvage some of the mana leakage the broken resistor gives off and save myself the trouble of refitting it," Ral abruptly spouted, then turned to Jace and quickly ordered," Write that down, I can't forget that."

Jace chuckled and said," I have no clue what you're talking about. Why don't you?"

Ral eagerly took the journal Jace offered, and began writing down what he'd just said, and even mapped a little of it out in crude drawings, then sighed and handed back the journal and pen so he could avoid the temptation of working on his gauntlet more. He was _supposed_ to be doing anything but work on his gauntlet.

He guessed he owed Jace a bit of gratitude for making him get out of that room and think about other things. His creativity was already starting to come back, after suffering days of abuse at the hands of limited resources and sleep deprivation. He'd probably still work more tonight, and get little sleep, but at least he might accomplish more in his frenzied engineering.

"Maybe tomorrow you could make me take another break," Ral said softly. "We could check out the library or something. I've never been to an off-plane library before."

Jace smiled as he buckled his vest back up, journal secure. "Sure. This library is rather small, but it has a good selection of history and herbology. And cozy chairs."

"Ooh, my favorite subjects," Ral replied dryly. 

"And a few books on mana theory, especially regarding the Zendikaris' careful observation after the fall of the Eldrazi."

That actually did sound interesting, Ral had to admit. "I'll have to check those out."

They resumed their silent observation of the sky, and when it got dark enough, and Ral was sure Jace was studiously plotting stars in his journal—too distracted to possibly acknowledge something from below the heavens—he found he only had eyes for Jace. 

He'd known since escaping prison together, but his feelings got harder to hide all the time. Ral had never met someone he just… fit with so well. Even after putting up with all of Ral's trying tantrums and self-destructive behavior this week, even after his mishandling their time with the kor, and all that went down in trying to get out of the past… Jace didn't hate him. He understood him and didn't seem to mind the time it took to do so. It was kind of bizarre, and he didn't know how to react to realizing just how much Jace really meant to him and how these feelings really weren't just going to clear up on their own.

Jace was about to look over, Ral panicked, and he quickly turned his attention heavenward.

"I haven't seen stars this clear since my childhood," Ral quickly mumbled, trying to force conversation so Jace would hopefully be too distracted to peer into his mind.

"Oh? Telelia must be quite rural."

"Almost as bad as this place," Ral automatically replied, though as it left his lips, he realized he was undecided about this village. It _was_ in the middle of nowhere with no proper forge in the area—all their smithed goods came from a town two day's walking away—but the residents had been nice, and maybe Jace's opinion was infectious, but he was starting to see how much pride the locals took in their hard work of restoring the world back to its former health.

"I wonder if I could see stars well from where I'm from," Jace pondered aloud, letting his gaze slide up to the stars again.

"You said Tandris was one of your first friends, right? Tenth precinct is awful for stargazing." The constant city lights polluted the sky with radiance at all hours of the day, making only a handful of stars strong enough to stand out.

Jace's breath caught as his eyes swept back to Ral, surprise on his tongue, but unsure how to word itself. That was the closest Ral had ever come to implying Jace was actually Ravnican.

"Ah, shooting star," Ral quickly excused, pointing up and hoping Jace would take his attention off him.

"I missed it," Jace whispered, eyes searching the sky fruitlessly.

_You can't miss what wasn't there_ , Ral thought, then had a sinking feeling in his chest. There wasn't actually anything between them, either. He should just put it aside and focus on getting them back to their timeline.

Jace picked up on darker thoughts, noting the heaviness but not peering passed the emotion, and asked," Something wrong?"

"Nah," Ral quickly handwaved with a hearty sigh. "Just tired. Homesick. You know."

They continued watching for a while more, and Ral focused on running equations in his head to keep his thoughts light. He had to remember to keep on top of that—he didn't want to go ruining his only friendship by making Jace too curious for his own good and look inside to see why Ral was being moody like he was.

They eventually headed back, and Jace had to argue for it, but Ral agreed to work only a few more hours on the gauntlet before heading to bed.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Science Fiction — Double Feature!
> 
> I know it's been quite some time since the last chapter, but I've been grinding away at stabilizing my life—mainly figuring out how to balance working everyday with accomplishing chores and errands, and still making time for friends. I finally got around to some editing though, so hopefully there aren't TOO many grammar slip ups in these two chapters.
> 
> Starting to edit Chapter 30 tonight, so I hope to be posting it soon. Thanks again to all who've followed this story and series. Every comment, kudos, and hit really mean a lot to me. I appreciate you guys so much, thank you for reading.

The morning Ral finally declared his gauntlet _probably_ —probably was always a condition applied to new or newly refurbished Izzet wares, or even well tested wares to be completely honest—working, was a relief. They'd worn themselves thin on mizzium, only slivers left after all the materials they'd needed and how long they'd ended up staying.

"Let's just timewalk," Ral answered Jace's question of how they should plan ahead.

"What if we end up in a time that we can't figure out our temporal location?"

Ral handwaved Jace's concern and said," We might accidently planeswalk when we timewalk anyways, and I'm not adding an extra planar journey if I don't have to."

That was fair enough, and at the very worst, they could just planeswalk to Ravnica if they were temporally lost. They would probably encounter yet another unforeseen obstacle along the way as they were wont to do, but they'd burn that bridge when they got there. Patting his chest and reassuring himself he had his journal, he nodded and said," Well, I'm ready to go then."

"I was hoping you would say that. I'm ready to see my lab again."

Jace confidently nodded, feeling Ral's sureness they would get home resonating from him and returning the certainty. Stepping close and holding out his hand, he said," To the past, then."

Ral's hand clamped around his confidently, and they both felt his intense draw of mana. They'd told the tavern owner they were heading out today, so there were no loose strings left to tie up here. Present Ravnica, here they came.

A little more prepared this time, the pull on their sparks was easier to go along with, and led to a much less violent journey. No walk through the Blind Eternities was fun, but at least Jace didn't feel like Ral's spirit was crumbling between his fingers. That didn't mean he hesitated to pull them somewhere when they brushed a plane he was familiar with though.

Ral's knees cried out from the shock of landing on the new plane of existence they found themselves on, but he grinned proudly as he stood up straight and took in his surroundings. That was a rather smooth planeswalk for him, and he hadn't even known where he was going.

Jace looked over them both mentally, sighing with relief as he found they had made it safely with no emergencies. Ral's mind was on the cusp of epiphany, and Jace curiously asked," What is it?"

"I figured it out," Ral said with a smile as he looked over his gauntlet. "Or rather, figured it out why we haven't figured it out. I can control which way we're jumping, and how far, but not how many times." They should have traveled almost one hundred years this time—if he was correct now—since he had edged on the side of conservative this jump only planning around 50 years this jump.

"What do you mean?"

Ral showed Jace how two orbs glowed on his gauntlet. They were already beginning to dim, but it was clear only two had been charged. "It seems to be random chance how many go off, and for each one that does, we leap that many more years.

"I was only expecting us to go twenty-five years, give or take a year, the first go. Three lit up, and we walked seventy-two years into the past. Next time, just over a hundred and forty years into the future—with three stones lighting up--starting seventy years in the past. Don't you see?"

Jace nodded, then placed a hand to his chin as he conjectured," So, our best bet is to select a small amount of years and seesaw around our destination until we hit it."

"Problem is, I'll have to recharge each timewalk, and might have to be replacing a very difficult piece as it melts. What if we end up in a time where we can't get it?" They didn't know the future. Some gigantic war might be on the cusp of taking innovation and progress with it. It had been difficult to replace the first time, and they still didn't have a way of replacing it immediately if melted again.

While a very enlightening and interesting conversation, certainly deserving of careful contemplation, a howl interrupted them and Jace stiffened as a chill went down his back.

"What," Ral asked flatly.

Jace looked up to the glyphed moon for confirmation and grimaced. No wonder the air felt so dreadfully familiar.

Ral hastily repeated himself as another howl got closer," What is it, Jace?" A couple bolts of lightning should take out most wolves, but from Jace's shell shocked expression, these weren't just some wolves.

"Werewolves," Jace whispered loudly, grabbing Ral's bicep and pulling into running with him.

"Werewolves?" Ral echoed, not liking the sound of it. 

"Humans who've been infected and turn to savage beasts on the full moon," Jace's voice became faint as he looked up to the silver moon once more. "And without this plane's protector giving her blessing, there's no cure, and few can keep their wits about them as they transform into bloodthirsty monsters."

"Why isn't she giving her blessing?"

"She doesn't exist anymore," Jace answered a little remorsefully. "The angel… The angel soaked in red." He'd accidentally shared Innistrad with Ral once before, and though it had been a flash, Avacyn's bloodied rage was hard to forget. Jace slowed down a little as he was already short of breath. "She was unmade by her maker. I don't know if that was the right call—her plane needed her—but we didn't exactly have a lot of time to figure out how to cure her. Her church survived her… somewhat."

"Where are we going?" Ral asked, trying not to let the relief creep into his voice as they settled to a more manageable pace.

"I can feel someone over in this direction. Just the barest hint of consciousness. I don't know how far away they are, but maybe they can help us find shelter."

Jace's eyes got watery as he came to a full stop and shook his head. "They just—" His breath hitched. "—they just died."

Ral's stomach churned. What did that feel like, to know by one's thoughts—or rather lack thereof—that another person died? Did he feel this person's pain as they died?

"We should continue moving. Whatever killed them is probably still gunning to get another meal for the night," Jace said, trying to keep himself thinking forwards so he didn't have the time to look back. The death felt gruesome, and he had phantom pains of claws dragging through his chest. With no accompanying murderous mind, he had a hunch that way was the coast and they'd happened upon a drownyard.

"Sure, but where do we go?" Ral looked over his shoulder as he thought he heard a twig snap underfoot of something. 

"I know one..." Jace trailed. "One place we may find refuge."

"I'm not joining some church if that's your pl—"

"I know one person who may be willing to help us, assuming she's on this plane at the moment."

Ral gave Jace an incredulous glance. "We have no clue what timeframe we're in." Neither of them knew Innistrad well enough to be completely certain from the little looking around they'd done. All Jace knew for sure was they weren't in the past. "Who could you possibly know with any certainty they'd be here?"

"She has a fondness for this plane." Though it was hard as a mind mage to fathom why. With her powers, she had to just thrive off the gloom and despair, but he found himself shrinking in on himself with distrust of his surroundings as they walked aimlessly down a worn trail. "Do you want to go to her manor or stay in the woods? I think we're close."

A howl followed by several others made up both mage's minds, and they were soon headed farther into Stensia. For one who had only been to her manor twice, and Innistrad in general as many times, he was pretty proud of himself when he found he'd been correct in guessing their location. He had reached out for the manor as his beacon while selecting Innistrad, and apparently it had paid off.

Hours passed, and Jace had to reorient himself a few times, but he was almost certain he was heading the right way. For Ral's sake, who seemed to hate Innistrad even more than he, Jace sure hoped he wasn't leading them astray.

As it became obvious to Ral that they were headed for the grim manor that looked just as welcoming as a Golgari rot farm, he scoffed and asked," You expect me to go _there_?"

Jace looked over, not particularly happy about it himself. "I'm not saying there will be less undead than the woods, but I am fairly certain they'll be less inclined to eat you."

"Fair enough," Ral grumbled, shoving his bare hand into a pocket grumpily.

When Jace approached the gate that he clearly remembered from his recent, from his relative time, trip to Innistrad, he was both surprised and all too unsurprised to find a zombie waiting to open it. It was eerily quiet as they were lead by the shambling guide, and had Jace's eyes not been darting side to side as they passed onto the manor's grounds, he would have never realized that the yard was teeming with undead.

Ral's shoulder bumped his as a zombie came too close, and Jace started at the shock but kept quiet.

The door was opened for them, and Jace cautiously called in," May we enter?" It made his skin crawl that this was so much more uncomfortable for him than the last time he'd come here, bursting in and certainly not welcomed.

A lithe form sauntered into the moonlight, clothed in a lilac dress with a black leather gorget and vambraces. He wondered if the donned leathers was fashion or function. How much worse would Innistrad have to get for _Liliana Vess_ to resort to armor? Perhaps the most surprising change was her hair though, now with short bangs that framed her face, giving her a lighter, carefree air than her typical reserved look.

"Jace," she purred. "It's been a while, especially since I saw that youthful face. Timewalking, are we?"

_She knew!_

"We must have made it back," he said with elation, turning to Ral excitedly.

"Or at least met me at an earlier time and explained a few things," she said, her smirk curling in a way that Jace couldn't decipher. Was she just being cruel for the sake of it? He wouldn't put it past her, certainly.

"Can you tell us—"

"Past you, or perhaps you in your relative future is the more apt description, was very adamant in keeping the timeline… Clean? Pure? You wanted to protect it, that was for sure."

Ral looked between this woman and Jace, feeling he should vaguely know who she was. She looked just as young as they did, but this was probably well into the future from when Jace would have known her. He didn't seem phased at all that she look so young. "Ral Zarek," he decided to introduce himself, walking up and holding out a hand. "And I don't much care who you are, but I'd sure damn appreciate if you could let us in out of this awful hell we've found ourselves in."

"Charming as ever, Rain Mage," she bit out with an indifferent sidelong glance his way. Liliana didn't make an effort to accept his handshake, or pay him much more attention.

Ral bristled at her remark and disinterest, a bitter satisfaction taking root as her hair began to frazzle in the charged air he couldn't quite keep from making. Either she knew it was a lost cause or she didn't care, not bothering to pat her hair down like most tried.

Liliana sighed and turned her back with a beckoning hand urging them to follow her. "Come in, you two. I'll have supper put on shortly."

"Thank you, Lili, we appreciate your hospitality."

Liliana looked back and smiled. "Have I ever been less than a gracious hostess?"

Jace bit his tongue to keep from saying anything stupid.

"Before supper, however, I've got something for you," she said, clapping her hands softly, to which an undead servant answered to her bidding. Shuffling forth with a bundle in its hands, it offered Jace the simply wrapped package. Jace looked to her for confirmation before taking it. "It's not your cherished cloak by any means, but I thought something a little familiar would still be welcome."

Exchanging a curious glance, Jace was urged by her eager eyes to open it, though he still did so cautiously. Liliana was being too… kind. It was honestly a little unsettling how settled into the idea of timewalking and how friendly with him she was being. They had been on the same team, last he knew, but they certainly had still had many things to resolve.

The coarse fabric fell away easily as he undid the hemp ties, and a familiar, beat up, leather coat was revealed. Its age was apparent; heavy creases were worn from how it had been folded for at least a decade, and the leather was softer beneath his fingers than he remembered, almost pliable despite its sturdy weight.

His breath was stolen from him, and he got a little misty eyed as he ran his hands over it and shook it free of its folds. It bore the fake arcane runes that he found aesthetically pleasing. Though not as intricate as his favored blue cloak, it still reminded him of _him_ , and sometimes he needed a little reassurance he was. 

"Lili…" He looked up with gratitude. "Thank you."

She may be scheming, she may betray them later, but at least he had a little piece of home to hold on to now. The bracers were gone, but the aged coat was more than enough to bring a little comfort as he shrugged it over the cloak he now wore. She always had understood his inseparable attachment to his garments of choice.

Ral looked on with detached disinterest. It was a coat. 

"And I don't know you nearly as well, but I have something for you too."

That perked Ral's interest. What in the 'verse would she have for him? If she was just giving out sentimental artifacts, she had nothing he didn't already have with him. Ral would kill for his gauntlet, capacitor, and dampener, but he already had those. Sure, he was partial to his Izzet garb, but he wasn't about to go crying about it.

His nose wrinkled as a zombie limped towards him, crossing his arms with disgust in his lack of wanting to touch the undead minion.

"Well, go ahead and take it," Liliana prompted.

Growling as he complied, Ral reached out a hand and took the offered present. "I'll open it later," he said stiltedly, shoving it in his pocket to be difficult. He could feel a glare coming from Jace, but he didn't particularly care.

She smiled again, though this smile didn't reach her eyes, being more out of the sake for manners than any genuine feeling. "Well, to dinner, then."


	30. Chapter 30

She'd given them both private rooms in her large manor, but Jace found himself quickly seeking out Ral's room, and he received a welcoming smile as Ral opened the door for him. 

Ral poured extra energy into his capacitor, enough to leave him borderline exhausted, as he asked," So this is the chick that broke your heart?"

Jace didn't reply, and instead became very focused on his vest's many buckles.

"She sure puts on a fancy air. How _ever_ did she associate with a blackmailing kid?"

To this, Jace finally bit the hook and said," We met when I left—I didn't keep up blackmailing forever, you know."

"I don't know how I feel about us being here. I know that it's not exactly safe outside, but is it any safer here?"

"You don't even know her," Jace found himself defending her.

"She's objectively bad," Ral said with a roll of his eyes," She wantonly murders people."

With a glare, Jace pointed out," The same could be said of you."

"Oh, please. The mortality rate of new Izzet recruits is thirty-one percent. I faced the same odds when I was young," Ral dismissed.

A knock at the door silenced their argument, and they looked to each other silently.

" _I'll get it_ ," Jace decided and let Ral in on.

Drawing his cloak around himself to cover his half undone vest, Jace walked up to the door and hesitantly opened it. He could feel the lack of thought on the other side as soon as he'd probed, so he wasn't surprised to find a zombie.

He was surprised as he took the note it held out, and saw it was addressed to himself. He flushed as he quickly read it, not even noticing the zombie's small gesture of holding something large up to chest height.

"You got a letter?"

"Yeah," Jace confirmed, blushing even more furiously as he looked up and saw the proper garment bag that could only hold the finest of silks and velvets this plane had to offer.

"Well, are you gonna leave the guy hanging? I don't think that wrist will support it much longer," Ral observed. The zombie's entire lower arm seemed near rotted away.

Jace flusteredly took the bag and shut the door on the zombie's face, turning about and letting his head sink back to hit the door with a dull thud. "She invited me to drinks," he informed Ral," And got me something… pretty… to attend in."

"No way are you going to drink alone with her. Jace—"

Looking down at the bag and shaking his head, Jace interjected," It would be rude to decline. We're staying in her manor and she already fed us the best meal we've had in over a month."

"Your funeral," Ral darkly dismissed, returning his attention to getting ready for bed.

"Well, at least I probably wouldn't stay dead," Jace sighed, setting the bag on the bed and undoing the buttons to reveal whatever she thought was "pretty".

The full suit hiding in the bag was just as ostentatiously rich as he imagined it would be, but he couldn't quite bring himself to hate it, as she'd obviously put thought into designing it for him in particular. He began to peel the individual layers apart from the hanger, mostly sure he knew how to assemble the full look.

"She knew to send the zombie to your room," Jace lamented mostly to himself. He looked to Ral miserably as the other man sat down on the bed lazily, not betraying an ounce of discomfort as he dramatically laid down and grabbed the pillow blissfully.

Ral gave an unconcerned wave of the hand. "It probably went to your room and found no one there and just meandered 'til it found us."

"That zombie was raised with no critical thinking. If it was sent to my room, it would still be waiting for me to answer," Jace whined. The zombies Lili rose were rarely cognizant, but she could easily raise them smart enough to make simple decisions—and he could tell the difference. She probably deliberately chose to raise the most simple undead that could accomplish the task, just to flaunt how well she knew him.

"Jace, if you're this upset before you even put on the gaudy costume, then why do you want to drink with her?" Ral's question earned him a thrown shirt to his face. It had become somewhat of a joke between them; it lessened the awkwardness of undressing in the same bedroom.

It took Jace almost twenty minutes to don the outfit—since Ral refused to help—and be content with how everything sat. It was uncomfortable to be in such drastically different clothing from his own, the waistcoat feeling loose and the high-waisted breeches feeling tight, but he had a feeling he had to look actually fashionable for once.

"Well, how do I look?" Jace asked a little humorously, smiling half heartedly and feeling as ridiculous as he did confident. The way Ral looked at him, made him flusteredly look down at himself and pull at the lapels of his coat. "What?"

Ral looked away with an air of forced nonchalance, and quickly—perhaps too quickly—answered," Nothing."

He spared another glance at Jace and cleared his throat, adding," The coat fits you nicely."

Jace brushed diffidently at the navy velvet coat, and said," Well, I guess I'll go see her now. She's been waiting."

"Have fun," Ral said flatly, making his disapproval clear.

"I will," Jace said a little sharply.

Ral turned away, pulling the blankets with him. "Good."

"Good," Jace echoed and exhaled shortly. He pulled at the strange silk at his throat, and sighed once more, though this time a little bracingly, and set out.


	31. Chapter 31

"Now this is what you should have been wearing the first time you came to see me on Innistrad," Liliana said with an impressed tone as Jace meekly entered the room the note had instructed him to.

Blushing, Jace shrugged. "It's not horrible, but I'd like it better with my cloak." The letter had specifically mentioned not to wear his cloak and raincoat, and what was the point of humoring her half way?

She sat in a fancy armchair by the fireplace, an equally plush chair sitting empty on the other side. A much closer to sentient zombie waited at her side with wine chilling in an ice bucket and two flutes on a silver platter.

"I thought you normally drank red," Jace commented to slide the attention off himself. As he took a seat in the lush chair, he decided pantaloons were immensely superior to breeches. He tried to discreetly adjust himself to be comfortable, but to no avail. If Liliana noticed, she politely didn't say anything.

Of course what she wore was stunning. A light muslin gown trimmed in extravagant lace and lilac ribbons, a dark purple shawl with golden accents tying it all together, had most of her shoulders bare and fell very low on her bust. Jace had to look away as she leaned forward, knowing just how tempting she could be.

"It's just so good to talk you again," she said," I thought we'd celebrate." As the words left her pale but full lips, a cork popped and their sparkling wine was poured.

Jace looked to her with a worried brow and said," You make it sound like I'm _dead—am I dead_ —?!"

"Jace," she said calmly, shushing his sudden panic. "Remember? Future past you told me it was very important not to tell you things."

"And yet here you are, dangling interesting implications," Jace complained. He bit back a frustrated groan as she merely smiled innocently.

She took a flute of wine then held it out as Jace received his. He begrudgingly held his up as she made a toast," To friends older and younger than you might expect."

"You were always older than I expected," Jace quipped before taking a sip.

She bit back a sneer as her brow raised to color her impressed. "A little snippy tonight, are we, Jace?"

He looked into her dark, beautiful eyes, a calculating expression gripping his face rather seriously. "I don't know why," he deadpanned," You called me down to drink with you, and you're holding a lot of information from me."

"Only because you _asked_ —will ask," she dismissed. "Anyways, can't we just have a nice night together? You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

"So has Ral."

"Yes, but we both know he wants nothing to do with me," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I should count myself lucky he didn't fry me during dessert. It was a little amusing to see the gears in motion in his small head as he worked out who I am."

Jace chewed his lip, thinking of the very obvious moment Ral had connected that she was the woman from the dream they unfortunately shared. He took another drink of his wine, a little longer of a drink than was normal, and looked to the fire awkwardly.

"But enough about that," she said, frowning at how tensely he sat and quickly he drank," Let's talk about something else. Like, say, any new books you've been reading? I'm afraid my library is rather small after a pesky fire, and I'm looking for some new novels."

"Uh, I read a religious text of the Simic, but it was kind of boring." Only marginally less boring than how bored he'd been before reading it. "Otherwise, I haven't had much time. Just a small library on Zendikar." Jace nervously looked down to his glass at the genuinely interested look Lili gave him; she'd always been a good actress, that just must be her attempt to make him feel like she really cared. It was probably supposed to put him to ease, but he found it hard to let himself believe that she really was concerned with his hobbies.

"I've, uh, been doing more writing lately," he continued, feeling pressure to keep the conversation going.

"Oh," Liliana's voice raised with her, perhaps faked, intrigue.

"Yeah, just observations I've made. I'm keeping a journal." He grimaced as he thought about the last time he was here with a journal. Ugh, he should have just kept quiet after saying, no, he hadn't read any interesting books lately.

Liliana smiled like one did when hearing an old story their friends passed around time and time again. "That journal has to be quite interesting with all your timewalking about. How many walks in are you at this point?"

"This is our third jump," Jace answered, tempted to peek into her mind and see the number that came to mind for the grand total. If they really had met in her relative past after their departure from the present, she just might have an idea of how many attempts it took them to get back home. She had to be thinking of it right now— _No, don't even think of prying into her mind_ , he thought abashedly.

"Third time's a charm. I guess I'm the lucky jump."

"Well, the hot food and beds without mold is quite convenient," Jace admitted. "Thank you again. You didn't have to let us stay, but I'm really glad you did. I don't fancy running into anymore werewolves ever again."

"Werewolves," she echoed, tapping a finger to her lips and trailing off like there was an interesting story there.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me more about—"

Liliana's smile quirked to be a little more mischievous and Jace sighed exasperatedly. "Of course not," he muttered.

"I'm sorry," she said with a small, not sorry, laugh. "I know it must be frustrating not to be told anything. This conversation is much more difficult than I anticipated it would be. I mean, you told me it was annoying for you, but I didn't think it would be so hard to find _something_ we could safely talk about."

"I thought you prepared for everything," Jace said, a little surprised she even admitted being caught flat footed. She always seemed to have as many contingencies as he did, and perhaps even more arrogance. "It's hard to believe you really just conceded to being out of your element."

"Well, a lot of things have changed between us," she excused. "I guess in the centuries under my belt, I've learned a little humility—with those I know, at least. You helped me with that."

He raised one eyebrow and curiously asked," Did I?"

She shrugged rather casually and tucked her short bangs behind one ear. "You helped a little. Obviously I put in the hard work."

Jace laughed at that and went to take another drink, only to find his flute was empty. When had that happened? He held out his flute and tried not to cringe as a zombie came close to pour his second glass. The long, furtive glance Liliana gave him went unnoticed.

"So, I take it, being a part of the Gatewatch did you good. How did—" Jace cut off and sighed, realizing the futility of asking about the future success of the organization.

"The Gatewatch didn't always go smoothly, but we did a lot a good for the multiverse and a few planes in particular," Liliana volunteered.

" _Did_ a lot of good? The Gatewatch fell apart?"

With a roll of her eyes, she said," Picking my every sentence apart. Some things will never change." As Jace tried to defend himself, she quickly added," It's endearing, hun. Don't worry."

Jace blushed, scratching the back of his neck. "I don't know. If you managed to overcome some vanity, there's hope for me to get over a few of my critical habits." He smiled with a little relief when she laughed.

It was easy talking with Lili like this. She made him feel special and funny and Jace felt his anxiety bubbling away. Maybe that was the bubbles of the wine he was now finishing the second glass of. His blush deepened as he realized she was only just having her second glass poured. He was just getting himself through an understandable amount of stress. Having drinks with someone who set up the murders of his friends and used him like she had was a little anxiety fuel.

 _Go back to thinking about how this was easy_ , he begged himself. "I really like your hair," he quickly mumbled out, hoping it came off smoothly.

She mussed the short bangs and feigned humble surprise. "Thanks, I hadn't done anything with it sixty years. I felt like it was time for some change." 

Jace ran his fingers through his own hair and asked," Do I change my hair? Like, do I go with something really different?" He was really searching for if he ever revealed his current hair that he had illusioned away, and more specifically, if it went over well.

"You are a walking fashion disaster, Jace. You've always gone with something really different," Liliana ribbed.

Jace loosened the cravat around his neck and scowled. 

"I'm kidding," she said with a dismissive hand wave. "You really start to have fun with your hair when the grey comes in."

His illusion seemed to be holding at least, he thought flusteredly, running a hand through the fake locks again.

His flute was taken and replaced with a tumbler, small ice cubes cracking under a much darker liquid being poured over them. Jace looked over to the very expensive looking bottle and whistled softly at the sheer quality he was expecting. He didn't often go for scotches, but this bottle of scotch probably cost about as much as the expertly tailored jacket he currently wore. 

"Sparing no expense on my account," he noted aloud as he brought the freshly poured drink closer and smelled the smooth, petey alcohol.

"Since when have I pinched pennies ever?"

Jace remembered a time when she played along with his and Kallist's circumstance, slumming it up and surviving on their small savings. In mixed memories that were hard to parse, he remembered her staying with him through six months of incredibly low pay, as he tried to make it as a security guard, eating rationed mushrooms and living in a molding house in the Avaric district. It was hard to reconcile the expensive elegance he'd since come to know her to have with the woman that was content living on practically nothing.

"I suppose you just have the patience after centuries to get through time of poverty," he blurted, then winced and took a drink. It truly was a smooth blend, and had a robust flavor with nary an aftertaste.

She hummed questioningly, and instead of being smart like he liked to claim he was, Jace elaborated," When you were on the run with me and Kallist."

Her eyes widened in surprise, then fell to half lidded and looking to the fire. Her enigmatic expression wasn't cleared up as she spoke. "We don't have to talk about him."

With a furrowed brow, he asked," We don't have to, or you don't want to?"

"I don't know if I can have this conversation with you right now. Why don't you let me catch up?" She swirled the wine in her glass—half empty— and looked to his tumbler that was near empty.

His hand was shaking, he realized as he looked to his own glass, and he frustratedly realized his eyes were stinging. It might be immature, but he downed his glass on the spot, refusing to comply with her gentle suggestion. She was just drinking purposefully slowly to make him feel stupid—to maintain her mien of controlled sophistication while he looked like a hapless drunk.

"But remember the good times," he bade, glaring into his empty glass. He felt the alcohol in his system, but stubbornly refused to believe he was being hit as hard as he was. "Kallist was such a great guy. Like, the best friend a man could ask for."

"He was, wasn't he?" Liliana sighed and drained her flute. The celebratory bubbles sparkled with sharp tang that no longer felt victorious. She needed something dry and red to wash down the sickening sweet the bubbles left.

"I just, every all the sometimes I feel—" Jace cut off and squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I just look back and wish I made choices differently. He was so good and I asked so much and he followed and helped me out time and time again, and I got him dead. Well, you got him dead. _We_ got him dead."

She breathed in deeply, a regretful sigh on her lips. She cued her undead waiter to pour him another heavy serving of scotch. "We both have made many mistakes, and as life has a way of going, I know we both will make many more."

Jace mulled over her words and wondered aloud," If I knew what mistakes I was to make, maybe I could avert them. Avert disasters like Zendikar, which would in turn save Innistrad." His speech was beginning to slur, a mixed array of too cleanly annunciated words as he became self-conscious of his drunken state and muddled words that had to be pried from his tongue with sheer will to get out semi-coherently.

"Or maybe that might mean someone else broke the seal later and you wouldn't be there to fix it, leading to the end of the multiverse. Even clockworkers get it wrong."

"Maybe," he admitted. The scotch warmed his cheeks and stomach as he took a sip. "But it would be nice to not be the man who messes everything up."

This was not at all how Liliana had envisioned this night might go. Leave it to Jace to tell her vague things about their future meeting, that she should give him that dumb leather coat and insisting they need to drink together, without giving any details that it would be a horrendous night and make both of them feel awful.

In her pique, she momentarily thought of punishing the Jace before her since her Jace was quite inaccessible at the moment. Scowling and propping her cheek in her hand, she begrudgingly reminded herself that this Jace was hurting. He was the youthful idiot that still fumbled around her, caught up in the desire to mend bridges and sever ties and still reeling from all she'd done to him.

Liliana's scowl turned to more of a doleful frown. She couldn't remain mad at him. Not this version of him.

"Kallist was so great," Jace suddenly announced, victim to his circling thoughts. "Remember that time he helped me get out of the base to—no, you weren't there for that. But he helped me out so I could see Emmara after, well, I don't actually want to talk about, and then when I got back I was so worried he'd be in big trouble, but you know Kallist, we both knew Kallist, but I digress, he shouldered everything with his strong… muscular shoulders…" 

Jace trailed off as he thought about Kallist and his athletic build. Then, snapping back to what he was saying like he'd never stopped, Jace continued," Without him I wouldn't have been able to get to Emmara to heal my back, you know the scars I'm talking about—of course you know what I'm talking about."

He clamped his mouth shut as he realized he was rambling, then exhaled and said a little more clearly," He was always helping me out."

"He was a good friend," Liliana offered quietly.

"He _loved_ you. He wanted to be more than friends with you. And even after all he did for me, I shafted him and ignored his feelings."

"To be entirely fair, I was on a mission. He never actually had a chance," she said into her drink.

"I—I would have never had a chance if I wasn't useful to Bolas, would I?"

"Would we have ever met? I don't know. But planeswalkers have a way of seeking each other out and finding each other… interesting."

Jace grinned the idiotic grin of a drunken man being told he had a chance from a beautiful woman. With a little more confidence than was warranted, he asked," Do you find me interesting now?"

Lili rolled her eyes and responded," You really think this is the time to flirt with me? We're in your future and I'm not the same woman you left behind."

"No, ah, I didn't mean to f-flirt—I just, well," he fumbled over, looking appropriately sheepish as his words came out sloppy. He took a large swig of his scotch, regretting how quickly he was drinking what had to be the finest liquor he'd consumed in ages. Most likely, the best alcohol he'd had since his Consortium days.

As he held his glass up for a refill, Liliana quickly signaled her zombie not to fill it. This expectedly drew a glare from her guest.

"Jace, I can't let you do this to yourself. You're drinking yourself into a stupor," she explained. She bit her lip as she considered telling him what he overcame. Ugh, why did the Jace in his future and her past _insist_ on having drinks? It was hard for her to watch.

"I'm not even that drunk," Jace belligerently slurred. 

"You're not an idiot, Jace," she scoffed. He was very predictable, and she had purposefully gotten him very drunk a handful of times before they broke up—she knew painfully well how he reacted to alcohol. He was showing all the signs that he was on the verge of blacking out. "You know you never feel how drunk you are until later."

Well, he felt rather drunk, and he couldn't find the words to defend himself. Jace got to his feet unsteadily, reaching for the bottle of scotch and watching his hand swipe through empty air despite the zombie not moving at all.

Handing off her stemmed glass and holding out her arms to Jace, she softly said," Jace, come here. You're going to land on your face."

He regarded her like she was trying to trick him, unsure if he should stumble over or try and find his way back to Ral's room.

The next thing he knew, he had himself sloppily flung across her lap, his waistcoat unbuttoned so she could rub his back under it. Even through the thin linen of his shirt, her hands were beautifully cold on his back

"Still sticking to 'not that drunk'," she asked a little humorously.

His skin crawled as the soothing cold touches suddenly felt like menacing icicles dragging across his back. He backpedled hard, sitting up and slipping on her dress, then falling to the ground. He barely registered the pain. Her hands were following him, trying to keep him from hitting his head, then righting him.

"I'm—" Her breath hitched. Withdrawing as she saw how he shrank away from her hands, she looked away and forced out," I'm sorry." She was centuries old, and it was still a miracle every time she managed those simple words.

Jace looked around for his coat, finding it discarded by his original chair and hastily threw it on, relishing the comfort it brought. It was nothing like his cloak, but it was close enough right now. He pulled the stiff material tight to his body, the taught jacket encasing him offering protection.

He felt small on the floor, but he felt even smaller when she silently joined him—a good arm's length away for both their sakes.

He looked to her with teary eyes and mumbled," I'm sorry I attacked you."

"What?" Her voice was pitched a little high in her confusion.

He rubbed at his eyes. "L-last time I was here, I attacked you and you bled and I hurt you. In your own home. And we talked."

Yes, they had certainly talked, she thought, if he was talking about the night before they faced Emrakul together. Their talk wasn't pleasant. "That was decades ago," she dismissed.

"I never apologized properly," he whimpered to himself. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

So he was feeling guilty, she realized. "You will," she cooed, reaching her hand out towards him but keeping it on the floor so he could choose to close the distance or not. "Apologize properly, I mean. It will be painfully cheesy, but that day will mean a lot to both of us."

Jace stared at her hand, noticing the fine manicure that left her nails a pale lilac with white edges. Most of the time he knew her, he thought he knew her well at the time, she couldn't afford nice nails. She used to file them down short and keep them as clean as she could, but that was all. He wondered if she did them herself, had a zombie attempt, or had it professionally done.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked gently.

He hummed questioningly as he looked up and realized she'd spoken, but not caught her words.

"I can't just read your mind. What are you thinking of?"

"You have really pretty nails," he answered, blushing dumbly.

"I might just swoon from all the compliments you're throwing my way. Pretty hair, pretty nails, I'm being 'nice'... It's enough to make a girl feel giddy."

She was joking, and he gave her a flat glare after the flac she'd given him over actually flirting earlier.

She cracked a smile and said," I may have changed, but my sarcastic humor has not."

"Just my luck," Jace wryly muttered. 

They sat there quietly long enough for Jace to feel the dive into truly drunk, and the winding journey towards sobriety. He eventually took her hand, Feeling the coolness work through his fingers as she clasped his hand back. 

"I felt him die. Both as him and as myself," Jace whispered quietly. He knew what it was like to experience others' dying thoughts. It was painful and disorienting, but he had experience with how to deal with it. But back as Kallist—Jace choked back a sudden sob.

"I'm so sorry. I… I never meant for things to go the way they did," she said, squeezing his hand lightly.

"Lili, I have no one to talk to about him. I tried talking with Chandra about him, I guess, but I just want to reminisce and remember him with someone who knew him like me."

She nibbled on her lip nervously, afraid to broach such a topic so openly, but she nodded eventually. "I never had the honor of knowing him as well as you, but I do miss him."

Jace bobbed his head morosely, supplying another weepy phrase about how good of a man he was.

Liliana thought quietly for a moment before launching into a story about him, an upbeat tale that ended with Kallist holding his stomach from laughing and her embarrassedly covering her eyes. Jace smiled at this, able to perfectly imagine the assassin break his seriousness for what she described.

He was about to return a story, but he paused, and debated sharing the memory. There was no way he'd be able to capture all that happened with words alone. He was a good storyteller, but the events had just been too absurd to explain. "Would you mind if I…"

Jace fell silent as he remembered how twisted her mind was—unsure if the exchange would even go right—and how brutally he'd invaded her mind last time he'd tried to get in her head from his perspective.

"No reading," she made clear. "I have a promise to make good of, but you may show me whatever it is you want to."

He nervously nodded, mouth suddenly dry as he thought about stepping foot into her mind again. It wouldn't be the worst idea to drink some water. Jace may be the mind reader, but Liliana flagged her help down to bring him a glass of cool water.

"Thanks. Um, okay. Ready?" He waited for her assenting nod, and then began to show her a memory much like he'd shown Chandra.

Her laughter was light, lacking the cruelty he'd heard in the past, and he grinned himself at the hilarity Kallist and him soldiered through. It was one of those moments that certainly wasn't funny at the time, but looking back, it was a good laugh.

"Your mind is so…" He trailed off as she raised an accusing eyebrow. "I didn't read anything," he promised quickly. "It just feels a lot different."

"I'm many years older than you know me. A mind is bound to grow in that time. More memories and what not."

"I mean, the feeling is," he broke off, struggling to describe it. "Still cold, but more in a spring breeze way. It didn't feel like a maze."

"Well, one could say you cleared up some things for me."

Did he rebuild her mind or something? He could only wonder as she began another story. He let the curiosity fade as he let himself be wrapped up in her storytelling. They shared stories, mostly vocally, for another hour. Jace found his heart feeling lighter than it had in a long time. He couldn't take back all the actions that lead to Kallist's death, but at least they could honor his memory. 

It felt really, really good to talk about him again. To acknowledge he existed and wasn't just Jace's powers convincing himself of something he'd never actually experienced. It would have taken a damn good mind mage to implant that many memories, but with the secret and dangerous life he'd lived at the time, it was a possibility. It was refreshing to establish his memories were accurate.

"I should get some sleep. It's been a long—it's been a long month," Jace decided. 

Tonight had not started great, but now he understood why he would come to ask Lili to make sure they had this conversation. She helped him to his feet and shared his sentiment," I would have appreciated a little more clarity as to exactly how the night would go down, but I guess if you don't get spoilers, it's only fair I didn't either."

He laughed at her dry complaint.

"Would you like me to walk you back?"

"Nah, I should be fine." A moment thinking back on where he came from, he broke down and asked," Um, how did you know I'd be in Ral's room?"

"Jace, I've known you longer than you've been alive," she answered cryptically.

He kind of hated timewalking right now because that statement made sense.

After assuring her he did in fact know how to get back and that he'd see her in the morning, Jace was on his way through the manor's corridors.

Jace stumbled into Ral's room rather ineloquently, but as far as he knew, he managed to enter quite stealthily. He was a little surprised to see the pacing Izzet mage. "Ral! You're still up."

Ral looked over sharply as Jace called to him and forced on a smile, which contrasted heavily with the worried brow and tense shoulders. He had donned his gear again. "Yeah?" He shrugged as he came to stop, his toes still wriggling in place as he felt the need to _move_.

"You waited up for me?" Jace's eyebrows raised as a sappy grin spread across his face.

"N-no," Ral averted his eyes, looking down from Jace's stupid face only to see his dumb clothes in disarray. As much as he wanted to play it cool and unaffected, Ral couldn't help but rush forward and take Jace's elbows in either hand as he asked," Are you okay?"

"Wha—?" He looked down in confusion as Ral began doing up buttons and straightening out his vest. Jace had just enough wits about him to look appropriately sheepish. "Yeah, I'm fine," he coughed out embarrassedly. "Just a massage," he added, not knowing if that made things better or worse.

Ral's mind was buzzing, loud enough thoughts that Jace couldn't quite keep them all out in his current state. "Really, I'm fine," he reassured Ral, placing his hands over the storm mage's busy hands. All loud thoughts ceased instantly, like a candle being blown out, and Jace looked into Ral's dark eyes until the other begrudgingly gazed back.

"From how you talked her up, I didn't expect you to be all chummy with her," Ral excused, pulling away awkwardly. "I guess I was a little worried, you going off all on your own to deal with such a—" He saw Jace's hopelessly happy smile, zoned out a little from reality, and got the feeling that Jace didn't want to hear how awful Liliana was right now.

With a small scowl, Ral huffed and brushed Jace's coat brusquely. "Well, why don't we get to bed?" He pulled at Jace's cravat to urge him to take it off, which led to the jacket dropping to the ground shortly after. Ral indifferently let it, not caring about the money Liliana put into such a snazzy suit.

Jace went along with the suggestion with a small nod that wasn't all there. Grabbing Ral's sleeve, he tugged the other with him as he headed to the grandiose bed. Ral followed without too much complaint, but he pulled his arm back to himself as Jace went to flop onto bed. 

He wasn't going to get much more out of Jace, if the mind mage was even still conscious after hitting the pillow, so Ral just rolled his eyes and set to removing his gear once again. Afterwards, he clapped and rubbed his hands together, finding the static reasonable.

As he clambered into bed, Jace pulled Ral into cuddling, and Ral hesitantly wrapped his arms around Jace.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I love these dorks.
> 
> I'm starting to pull ten hour days and am still working a lot, but I hope to maintain this ~1 chapter per month. It's mostly a matter of editing now, and I'm pretty exhausted everyday, but I have one day off a week now! I had my first day off (not including taking PTO) since November two days ago, so there's hope that I'll get my stamina back and get these chapters out even faster!

Ral found Jace curled up on a chaise lounge in a library. A blackened, fire eaten library.

The furniture was clean, likely all recently replaced, but the shelving was falling apart and a zombie was quietly sweeping up broken books collapsing into ash on the ground. Ral grimaced and flinched away from the zombie when he noticed it, bee-lining for the lounge and sitting on the opposite side of Jace from the zombie.

"Ugh, these zombies give me the creeps. How are you so comfortable around them?" They weren't plant-enchanced like the Golgari's and they weren't re-living like the Orzhov's thrulls. They were a foreign way of magic, and a foreign way of doing a magic that already was repulsive.

"Well, my comfort doesn't really change if they're there. Lili does what she wants," Jace said wryly with an airy chuckle. "Pretty sure there would be more shambling about if I let on they creeped me out." 

He didn't mention how he'd been willing to look over a lot by the time he met her; how he'd already made himself overlook death and so many unquestionably immoral things and had been willing to do just as foul of work that her necromantic powers had seemed par for the course. Together they had killed and slaughtered and tortured their way to Tezzeret—what were a few zombies?

Ral stared at the disgusting zombie, rotting away and being forced to clean, and wrinkled his nose. Liliana was being very helpful, letting them stay, and he didn't want to get them kicked out to deal with werewolves and whatever else crawled about Innistrad at night, so he decided he better get used to it.

Jace kept reading, reclined on the lounge with his legs brought in close so there was room for Ral. He seemed quite comfortable, where as Ral sat there hunched over and twiddling his thumbs. 

Eying the zombie yet again, Ral decided it wasn't so bad, not with Jace here who seemed confident Liliana wouldn't kill them. He reached for his harness several times, each time backing down and grabbing his knees or otherwise occupying his hands. 

Finally, Ral worked up the will to actually undo a few belts and heft his equipment off and set it to the side. He looked to Jace embarrassedly when he realized Jace had been watching him. He gave a small shrug and nervously tried to put together some kind of excuse, but Jace cut him off with a smile and conversation opener.

"I've been reading what's left of her library. Not many books survived the fire, but some of them are quite interesting," he brought up nonchalantly. It had been too long since he could start up his day with a book in his hands that wasn't religious or self-written.

"What caused the fire?"

"She never did say, a frustrating theme of just about our whole conversation," Jace bit out, clearly annoyed. Nothing was worse than gathering so little information when so many questions had been asked.

Ral bit his tongue, but his curiosity made him stumble through the painful deterrent and he asked," So what did you guys talk about?"

"She has a very expansive book on the Innistrad vampiric lines," Jace said as if it was a perfectly fitting response to Ral's question. He focused his attention on the book across the room, lurchingly drawing it forth with his weak telekinesis.

Ral plucked it out of the air, if only because he didn't feel like getting a book to the face, and grumbled," What, you get to have a secret party without me, and I don't even get to know the details? The gossip couldn't have been _that_ juicy." He opened the tome and paged through it a little.

"I'd be surprised if Lili didn't have dirt on every ruling being on this plane. She has enough on Ravnica."

"Oh, so you _were_ blackmail buddies back in the day," Ral guessed.

Jace pursed his lips and glared at Ral. "No, we weren't _blackmail buddies_." That he'd given her blackmail to fall back on should she ever find herself in trouble was completely incidental.

Ral set his book to the side and turned his full gaze to Jace. The air smelled a little of ozone.   
"It's not actually your business how I know her," Jace said, meeting Ral's eyes. 

Ral pouted but accepted this and began to read his rather dull book. For thinking it was dull, it must have been at least a little interesting, because he became enthralled enough to realize he was already flipping to the fourth chapter.

"Hey, you know a little something about this plane, what does it mean by 'the emergence of the _Cryptolithes_ '?" Ral was turning to Jace as he asked, and noticed how the mind mage cringed.

"Not so loud…"

Ral face broke into a wolfish grin as he asked in a louder register," What was that, Guildpact?"

Jace moaned, turning away as he brought one hand up to cover an ear. "I hate you."

Still grinning, Ral rubbed Jace's hair roughly, filling it with static and laughing as Jace pushed him away while trying to stifle a smile.

"Stop it," Jace protested as Ral boisterously laughed, trying to hide that he was chuckling himself.

Ral saw as he approached the threshold where the induced pain stopped being humorously enjoyable and quieted down, pulling Jace close to his chest and whispering softly," Maybe next time you shouldn't drink so much."

"Duly noted," Jace mumbled miserably, closing his eyes and sighing a little contentedly. "Lili suggested the same, if I remember correctly."

"I'm surprised you remember anything," Ral said under his breath, stifling a chuckle as Jace batted his arm lightly.

Jace was about to vocally protest, but gave up as Ral began to rub his head gently, humming appreciatively instead.

"So you and Lili…"

The hum that followed that awkward half-question was not so appreciative. As Ral's hand stilled, Jace frowned. "We're exes, and we're staying that way," Jace said, but he sounded anything but assertive. "But… I care about her. I want to help her. I kind of promised I would…"

"Help? Look at this manor, she's far from needing help," Ral scoffed.

"I'm not talking something so nominal as finances or the like. She… We've both messed up, but she couldn't escape her contracts."

"Contracts? Oh, please, a little blackmail is nothing like whatever black magic contracts she's probably signed—" He cut off in surprise as Jace pushed himself away and glared at him.

"You don't know what I've been a part of," Jace interrupted, a look of genuine guilt darkly taking hold of his eyes. "Our past shapes who we are, but it isn't who we are. That's what my friend told me, anyways," Jace said, remembering Chandra's words through a stolen memory that he should have never had to take. "I know she can be better. I want to help her be better.

"We can't change the past—well, maybe it's more that we shouldn't," Jace continued, shaking his head to himself," Ignoring the past _is_ irresponsible, but we need to move on so we can do better in the future. Put all of ourself towards being better than we have been, and maybe that starts with forgiving…" Jace's eyes fell as he acknowledged the real person he needed to work on forgiving was himself.

Ral felt that Jace was being more honest, in a convoluted and secretive way, than he ever had been with him, and awkwardly stuttered out," Well, sure, but…"

"Look, I don't care if it's stupid," Jace growled. "I promised myself I would help her because it was important to me. What's it matter to you anyways?!"

"I'm worried about you," Ral admitted, then panickedly added," She's just bad news, you can't trust her! She lied to you!" He found himself reciting an old prayer from his childhood in his head, willing to rely on any higher power that might keep Jace from asking _why_ he would be worried about him.

"She might have _really cared_ for me, and not too many people can say that. If she did…"

"I get it. You're going to do whatever you want on whatever misguided reason you can string together," Ral said dismissively.

"Screw you," Jace snarled, pushing himself up to his feet. He failed to stand all the way up, his muscles freezing and making him tumble back to Ral's side.

While Jace was still thinking of how he could argue with Ral, Ral was hurriedly pulling away, brain caught up in full panic at the light electricity that was pouring out of him. A few creative swears left his lips as he felt Jace grab his shoulder sharply, the muscles clearly contracting a little haphazardly.

"Wait—stop moving," Jace called out, holding a stabilizing hand out to Ral. Such sudden movement had his stomach upset from last night's heavy drinking.

"But I need to—"

"Just—one moment… I need…"

Ral couldn't help but let his knee bounce as he looked over to his abandoned gear. He was an idiot. A fool. A dunce. A moron. Thickheaded halfwit who—

"Shh, you're thinking too loud. I'm fine," Jace said, before putting a fist to his chest as a burp threatened to be more. No more drinking. Why did he do this to himself?

Other than a little twitching in his hands and feet and the underlying nausea that thankfully settled back down, Jace _was_ fine, but he did glare towards Ral and say icily," I'm not really in the mood to argue. Especially about things that don't concern you."

"Sorry," Ral muttered under his breath, scowling unhappily with Jace's assessment. It did concern him, because he was the one who ended up staying up into the wee hours of the morning, anxiously waiting to make sure Jace was okay. Jace was just too oblivious to realize. His motivation to argue was shunted by his shame at losing control of his powers though.

Pulling away once Jace's hand slackened and he clearly didn't need the support anymore, Ral began to reach for his gear. It was reckless to go without it, he thought grimly. He was lucky nothing worse had happened to Jace so far. 

"Wait…" Jace's voice was soft. "Can we go back to before? I promise I won't start another yelling match." He hadn't really started it, but he sure had escalated it. Ral's thoughts were singed with… not a betrayal of trust so much as feeling that he'd been dumb to place trust. He'd trusted Jace not to set him off, and now regretted ever believing that was possible.

"It's stupid that we sleep beside each other," Ral said," It's even dumber to do whatever we were doing when we're conscious and I can seriously fry you because I got a little pissy."

"But…" Jace frowned but begrudgingly agreed," I guess." He had to remember that he couldn't let himself pretend he was the authority on Ral's body, and he certainly couldn't justify barging into Ral's mind to make himself so.

Ral was disappointed he won the argument, enough so that he decided maybe it was worth another try. His hesitation and reconsideration was evident as his grip on his capacitor tightened, then his hands went slack as he set it back down. One hand resting gently on his gear, Ral scratched at his filling out beard.

"We just have to be on the same page," Jace abruptly said. "Decide on how to navigate conversations and diffuse bad ones before they become a problem."

Ral pushed his capacitor away and nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, we're smart men. Surely we can figure out something so simple."

"We may be smart, but we're even worse at talking to others than Chandra," Jace muttered.

"You may be, but have you ever met someone more charismatic than me," Ral asked, running a hand through his hair and flashing a sly grin.

Jace gave him an unimpressed stare and flatly answered," Literally just about anyone else." Ral only ever made himself charming in that over the top, schmaltzy way, as far as Jace could tell, and then it was so obviously forced, Ral would have probably been better off just staying true to his grumpy self.

"That hurts," Ral said emphatically, mocking heartbreak and putting a hand to his forehead like he could faint at any second from distress. Jace rolled his eyes but grinned at Ral's performance.

Another spike of nauseous pain hit Jace and he closed his eyes as he sighed. "My head still hurts—"

"Gee, I wonder why," Ral cheekily muttered. He snickered at the way Jace's eyes snapped open to glaring slits once more, trained on him with a mixture of loathing and endearment.

"So, why don't we figure something later. For now… we just don't talk," Jace proposed, rubbing at his temples to dispel some tension.

Ral was about to quip something back, but seeing the true weariness Jace massaged his head with, he decided another time would be better. _For now_ , he'd cut him some slack. Finding his comfortable slouch into the chaise lounge once more, Ral murmured," C'mere."

It was easy to get Jace to go along with it, his cheek resting against Ral's chest again. Jace's eyes drooped drowsily, and Ral found it interesting how he could physically feel that sensation himself, and how it wasn't completely off-putting that he could. Raising his hand to Jace's forehead, he resumed siphoning heat gently and yawned. Late morning naps were always nice.


	33. Chapter 33

"There's the Birthday Boy," Liliana called out as the two crossed into the room.

Ral sent Jace a curious look, who immediately took an unassuming posture as he blushed.

"How could you even know," he asked Lili, looking to his feet embarrassedly," These planes' calendars don't match up."

"We did the math a while back, charted it all the way through five decades."

Ral crossed his arms and asked," I thought you said you can't remember your childhood, how do you know your birthday?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jace explained," She picked one for me."

"Well, a little birdy told me that this one didn't celebrate a birthday," Liliana began, pointing to Jace as mischievous smirk lit up her face and her eyes danced with amusement. She sauntered over as she continued," And I thought that just wouldn't do."

"He hated when you called one of us little birdies," Jace reminded.

Liliana laughed as she placed a hand on either of Jace's shoulders. Pulling him into a hug, she said," That was half the fun, darling." She pulled away after a quick squeeze and looked to Ral, still grinning impishly. "Kallist and him got into a little battle of who could embarrass each other more, and Kallist won most of the skirmishes."

Liliana messed up Jace's hair, which he realized he'd forgotten to raise an illusion over as she did, and stage whispered to him," You were too easy of a target, always sulking about."

Jace was pouting and blushing furiously, but it was the kind of distress painted on for appearances. Ral could tell Jace was _thrilled_. 

"I haven't actually celebrated since," Jace said, trailing off awkwardly. Liliana had thrown him a surprise birthday party once, and he'd never celebrated after, its anniversary landing shortly after they parted ways.

She began to pull him towards the dining room, gesturing for Ral come along as well, as she joked," So you're turning two?"

"Twenty-seven or so," Jace quickly retorted, shyly looking away as he let himself be pulled along. "For now," he tagged on, a gentle reminder that they were timewalking and hopefully would be setting themselves back in regular Ravnican time _soon_.

It was a surprisingly small affair, just a good meal with the same pleasant if cumbersome talk and a small zombie string quartet playing uplifting music in the background. Even in the short time Ral had known her though, he didn't know how he could have expected anything but extravagance from her. As their meal wound down, a zombie of quite fresh stock came into the hall holding a large cake, and one followed after with two small parcels wrapped in colored paper.

"I made you promise no more gifts," Jace whined as he looked back to Lili, betrayed.

"That was when we didn't have money," Lili dismissed. "They're things you can take with you, since I know you won't be staying long."

Jace covered his face with one hand as he protested," Lili, you didn't have to."

Ral watched with surprise as Liliana's upbeat and roguish grin that she'd been flashing all day faltered into a sincere, warm smile. She was quick to put back on appearances as she insisted," But I wanted to, and you know I get what I want, hun."

"I'm never opposed to free cake," Ral offered up as he watched the grandiose cake be set in front of Jace. 

Liliana began to light the candles and Jace started calculating how he was supposed to blow them all out. He didn't exactly have the most in shape lungs out there. He looked to Ral for help, and Ral just grinned back, ready to see how badly Jace failed. Bolstered by the desire to shove it in Ral's face, Jace took his biggest breath in—

"Don't forget to make a wish!" His friends on either side reminded.

—and blew out the candles as best he could.

Two candles in the corner yet flickered, and Jace gasped and exhaled vexedly. He quickly decided that the only reason people managed at all was their practice starting from such easy ages as four and five.

"I was even nice and put them close together," Liliana teased, then pulled Jace close to peck his cheek with a chaste kiss. "I guess we're your two dates tonight.

"Dates?" Jace echoed, exasperated.

Ral laughed and explained," Of course, however many candles you leave lit are how many dates are coming your way."

Jace's cheeks had never really lost their flushed tone, but his blush's resurgence managed to color his ears. A zombie came up and readied a knife, but Jace didn't notice. He was still focused on the candles, which he quickly finished blowing out.

Ral elbowed Jace to look and take the knife offered to him. Jace accepted it and cut a piece, then tried to serve and hand it to Ral.

"No, you're supposed to take the first slice," Ral said, pushing the proffered plate back to Jace's surprise.

"Am I?" His small shocked expression shifted with narrowed suspicion as he looked between Ral and Lili, like Ral was maybe pulling a fast one on him and there was no such tradition—he was just making up rules to make him look stupid. They both had all the knowledge here and were both more than a little mischievous.

"I mean, unless things are different on Innistrad," Ral said with a noncommittal shrug.

"Mostly the same," Lili said with a small giggle. "Though we missed an entertaining birthday with the big twenty-five."

"Oh? He doesn't know how old he is anyways," Ral said, perking up as he could read shenanigans were being discussed. "I say we decide he's twenty-five."

"I don't have enough socks," Liliana excused with a joking frown.

"Color me interested. He's turning twenty-five next year," Ral said.

Jace shot him a stilted glare.

Lili leaned in close, placing her hand over Jace's and moving his hand to continue cutting the cake, but it didn't feel flirtatious like Jace was used to. It was just… friendly. He smiled as he watched her puppeteer his hand into serving two more pieces of cake, greedily moving from serving to taking her plate of cake and wishing," Happy birthday, Jace."

"Yeah, happy birthday," Ral echoed cheaply, sticking his fork in and ready to start. He had nothing to do with the preparation, so he felt odd being too sincere.

"Thanks," Jace mumbled as he sat and grabbed his cake, feeling his cheeks burn from smiling too much. As he took his first bite, the other two eagerly dug in. It was charming, Jace thought, how she'd tried to replicate szarlotka. He didn't know how she knew it was a favorite of his, he'd never mentioned it before, but he really enjoyed the apple and cinnamon flavors melting on his tongue.

When they all finished their fill of cake, Liliana eagerly enthused," Now time for the presents!"

Jace unsurely began opening the first, flustered fingers making a mess of the paper. Eventually he opened it to reveal a leather case. As he popped open the case, he saw a fine silver and blue pen set in dark blue velvet.

"It's enchanted to always be full of ink when a proper mage uses it," Liliana introduced, clearly proud of her thoughtfullness. "But you'll have to break your habit of chewing pens."

Jace screwed up his face, feeling a little called out, but as he tried to deliver a properly nettled glare, it broke into a goofy smile. "I'll try," he conceded.

Liliana leaned back a little so she could give Ral an expectant look behind Jace's back. "You watch him on that. He has a dreadful habit."

Mostly because he knew it would piss off Jace, Ral held a thumbs up and said," Sure thing."

"Okay, okay, next," Liliana rushed. The everflowing pen was a parlor trick compared to the next item.

Jace carefully closed the leather and velvet box and placed it to the side before grabbing the next wrapped present. This one was square, about the size of his palm. Taking a moment to savor it this time, he gingerly unwrapped the back to reveal a simple wooden box. Inside, was a far from simple pocket watch.

Jace plucked the watch out, it's silver chain following with a soft rustle. Clicking it open, he was perplexed momentarily by a very complex breakdown of smaller faces. One for the day of the week, another for the month… but it was already set, and it didn't match current time. Upon further inspection, the last face was for year, three hands of varying sizes denoting the pieces of Ravnican year notation. 

It's date read the day Liliana had arbitrarily decided was his birthday, 40 years after the first time he'd ever celebrated…

"Lili…" Jace was speechless. Not only was the watch gorgeous, silver filigree outside making way for a carefully ordered date system surrounded by a simply elegant hour and minute marker, but it was… perfect. Exactly what Ral and he needed, and aside from functionality, exactly Jace's aesthetic.

Ral leaned over Jace's shoulder and whistled. "That is a complicated beast," he remarked, recognizing the engineering and enchanted prowess it was crafted with.

"It's beautiful. Thank you." Jace was too mesmerized by its gentle ticking and sophisticated splendor to look up.

"Anything for my darling mind mage," she said, laying on the schmaltz too heavy to be taken seriously.

"It's pretty cool," Ral admitted flippantly, trying to hide his intense desire to pluck the clock out of Jace's hands and begin examining how it worked himself.

"The highest praise that could come from my sweet Rain Mage," Liliana said, equally sardonic. Jace couldn't tell what she made of him. She either really liked him or was thinly veiling contempt. Maybe both.

Ral's eye twitched and he retorted," That name's an old relic, much like yourself." 

Jace nervously looked to Lili, but relaxed as he saw her lips quirk. She was enjoying getting a rise out of him and knew she'd have the last laugh.

The rest of the afternoon went by so quickly, and Jace could only assume it's because of who was keeping him company. " _See. Even if it was fake all along, she was always good at making me feel special_ ," Jace thought Ral's way as things were winding down, still thinking back to the argument they had earlier.

Ral couldn't find the same fighting words he'd found earlier in the day. He was just glad Jace was having a good time. Something in his expression must have changed, however, because as he made eye contact with Lili, he suddenly found himself under pressure as she conveyed, _don't ruin this for him_.

He wouldn't dare. Jace was a giddy idiot right now—giddy with celebrating only his second birthday he could ever remember. No matter Liliana's hidden intentions she may be harboring, he was glad that she put this together for him. He'd protect Jace from whatever she had coming to blindside him, but for now he'd let her bolster Jace… even if it hurt that it seemed he couldn't accomplish the same for Jace himself.

Artwork by God☆bird (www.god-bird.com)


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a rough month. Sorry this is largely unedited.

Ral held his ball of electricity higher, shedding light on the room he had just entered. He couldn't sleep, his brain unwilling to quiet for just a moment and his body refusing to stop producing more volts. He'd tried to remove his dampener, but decided tonight was just too dangerous for the vulnerable mind mage that liked to cuddle and occasionally share dreams.

A colorful, if uninspired, string of expletives left the storm mage as he found he'd discovered yet another parlor. Where was a godsdamned kitchen in this manor? The zombies had to make the cake _somewhere_.

Leaving the door open behind himself without much care, Ral turned back and followed down the path to the next room.

"Ral," a light voice greeted him with amusement, and Ral almost jumped out of his skin.

Realizing it was just Liliana, in her own hallway which he supposed he couldn't fault, Ral flatly corrected," Zarek."

She stood before him in a nightgown that hung from her shoulders with a low, laced neckline. Illuminated from a small oil lamp in her hand, she seemed both intimidating in its under lighting, and approachable in its soft glow. She raised a hand to her mouth as she simpered and laughed lightly.

"Oh, hun. I think you're confused. It's Your Grace to you," Liliana verbally slapped back, holding her chin a little higher and looking down her nose at the other. She had barely an inch on him, but she smirked as she could see him try to straighten up and achieve level eye contact.

"I don't recognize your title of… Baroness?"

"Nice try, but wrong title. It's not important," Liliana handwaved, knowing it would bother Ral more not to know. "Ravnica doesn't actually have sovereignty and related titles, does it?"

"Not formally, no," Ral answered. "Not for a long time."

Her shoulders relaxed as she said," Lucky."

This struck Ral as odd. She seemed like someone who would grab for power. As he tried to ask about her comment, she interjected," Politics can be so grating."

"Yeah, they really can," Ral agreed, annoyed enough with small his diplomatic role. He bet Jace would agree as well, often shirking his Guildpact duties.

"What are you up to at this hour?"

Ral shrugged and said," I wanted to make myself some coffee, I guess."

She laughed and said," Sure, follow me." She pushed past him, out of the ballroom and into the conservatory once more, and walked towards the far door. Her white nightgown hugged her hips and the silk gown cinched to an empire waist with a simple thick ribbon tied in a loose bow. 

He still wore the linen nightshirt he'd been outfitted in on Zendikar, having worn it under his clothes when they timewalked so he'd have something to change into in the event they didn't hit their mark—which of course they didn't. It had been nice to double up his clothing in the chill of the night when they arrived. Now, it felt ragged and unfashionable, its ill-fitting shape hanging loosely on his shoulders and the sleeves rolled up to hide the frayed cuffs.

He was comparing himself to her, he realized, finding one little detail after another of how flawless she looked. No wonder he was beginning to feel so uncomfortable when there wasn't even any lingering undead to blame. How her clothes hung on her lithe form, suggesting sexy and full curves… If Jace was into _that_ , Ral had no chance. He didn't physically compare to her beauty, he wasn't affluent, nor did he hold all that much power in the League. His title of Izzet delegate was more a form of punishment from his guild's parun than any form of honor.

By the time she'd lead him to the kitchen, Ral's stomach churned whenever he looked up from his boots. Being ushered into the pantry to find the coffee gave Ral something else to think about, which he latched onto desperately. He was at full on sparking by the time he found the coffee, easily frustrated with how uneasy he entered the task of finding the elusive pot of coffee grounds.

He came out holding the small pot, searching the kitchen for a coffee maker. His already present frown deepened as he asked," Don't you have a machine?"

"No."

Sighing deeply, Ral decided that was fine. He was a scientist; he could figure out how to make coffee on this archaic plane. Walking through what a coffee pot actually did: boil water, mix it with grounds, drain through a filter. Easy enough. He hadn't found any filters like he'd thought he would in the pantry—did cauldenders come small enough to strain coffee?

Okay, he'd just have to heat a pot of water on a stove—as Ral looked for an electric range, he realized there wasn't even an oven. There was a stone arch that held a fireplace and small wood stove. He inhaled deeply, promising himself he would figure this out and _not_ come off as an idiot in front of Liliana's judging eyes.

"You sure you should be drinking coffee at this hour? You seem a little on edge already."

Ral looked over to her, leaning against a wall like she was so cool, and realized electricity was crawling from shoulder to shoulder. He automatically adjusted his dampener and retorted," I don't need your concern or advice, _Liliana_." He was sure to use her name after being corrected to her title earlier. 

She shrugged her free shoulder, then pulled away from the wall and casually said," By all means, make yourself some coffee, Rain Mage. I'm just commenting that you're pretty high energy right now."

"What do you know about me?" Ral asked, almost insulted by the implication they might spend enough time together for her to know anything. He couldn't imagine them possibly talking in his upcoming future. She was a valuable resource when he had few to go around, but he wanted nothing to do with her.

He grabbed a pot from the hanging rack of pans and utensils and filled it with some water from the spout—he had to pump the water, how bizarre—and made a split decision to use the wood stove. He could just heat it in his hands, but then he wouldn't know what to do next. He was vaguely considering just dumping the grounds in and straining with his teeth. He'd relied on worse in the past.

Liliana sighed as she watched him look around, trying to be discreet as he tried to figure out what item he needed next was. She picked up the pot that hadn't had the time to heat yet and said," I have a kettle. Just let me, _Zarek_." She put the same emphasis on his name that he had on hers, smirking coyly as her adhering to his wishes seemed to inexplicably aggravate him more.

"I can make my own coffee."

"No you really can't, Rain Mage. You fail half the time you use your little electric machine."

So he forgot to add water or actually turn it on sometimes… He felt it was unfair to judge his abilities on when he was usually still asleep. "I—How—But…"

She pushed him out of the way, reaching for where she kept her coffee press. She preferred press to drip. Grabbing out a kettle and pouring the water from the pot into it, she placed it on the stove he'd started and hung the barely used pot back up. Tucking her hair behind one ear as she looked down to the coffee grounds he'd set out, she swiftly measured out grounds and poured them into the coffee press.

Ral watched silently, crossing his arms and pouting. She hadn't even given him a chance. He would have figured it out as he looked through the cupboard while the water boiled. He would have figured something out, anyways.

Liliana paid him no mind, putting the coffee grounds back in the pantry as she waited for the water to boil. When she came back out, she had to stifle a giggle at just how frustrated Ral looked. To think this was the imposing storm mage that was relied on for his wit, the childish display of drumming his fingers and frowning deeply didn't agree with the logical scientist image he wanted to portray.

He adjusted a dial on his belt again as he looked up to her and quirked one eyebrow. "What?" he asked gruffly.

"You're just cute when you're mad, is all," she dismissed in the way that could only make someone dwell further.

Ral quickly objected," I'm never cute."

"Oh, really?" she teased, leaning too close as she reached past him to grab the now steaming kettle.

He backed away uncomfortably, eyes darting from her angled chest—that would allow a much more than cursory gaze if so desired—to her devious eyes, sparkling with amusement. "I'm attracted to men," he quickly excused, his brain floundering and not even able to immediately draw the several reasons her hitting on him was so wrong.

"Is that why you were ogling my ass earlier?"

"Well, I'm not blind. It's fucking flawless. It's not even fair!"

Lili brought the kettle to the counter and set it next to the coffee press, then turned around and crossed her arms smugly. "Yours isn't exactly flawed either, Rain Mage. Right ass cheek, beauty mark, very _cute_."

Ral blanched, then tried to stutter something out, then fell awkwardly silent. Her grin curled her lips a little sadistically at his plight. After letting the kettle cool a little bit, he was still silent, so she used his recovery time to pour a small splash of steaming water into the press, just enough to immerse the grounds.

Eager to turn the topic off of whatever the hells their conversation had just been, Ral looked to the barely full press and asked," What are you doing?"

"It's blooming," she answered, checking out her nails as she waited.

"What?"

"The coffee, it's blooming. Fresh grounds need to bloom to have the richest flavor possible."

This intrigued Ral. "Why?"

Liliana rolled her eyes and replied," I don't know. You're the scientist. You find out."

He watched the press curiously as she began to stir the small puddle at the bottom, then poured in the rest of just below boiling water. "So you're telling me, that by letting it steep—"

"—bloom—"

" _Bloom_ ," he hastily corrected," it tastes richer?"

"Less bitter for sure," she said with a shrug, now turned back towards him and leaning against the counter.

His scrutiny of the press in front of him lessened as he decided he'd have to run some tests back in the lab. Something must be added or subtracted from the chemical makeup of the beans if it was affecting the taste but not adding any ingredient. "We all just use drip pots back in the League," he said conversationally.

"I _know_ ," Liliana said with a snide level of disgust.

"It's fast," Ral said defensively.

She hummed an unconvinced affirmation.

"And convenient."

"Uh-huh."

He looked Lilana in the eyes frustratedly. He didn't have much of an argument, seeing as he had yet to taste her coffee and see if it even was better tasting like she claimed. "Well, it seems like something the Orzhov would like," he said, a clear insult intended.

"I'm sure. They have better tastes than that of your precious League."

Ignoring the dig, Ral asked," So this is how they brew coffee on Innistrad?"

Liliana shook her head as she put the lid on the press and began to push the plunger down slowly. "No, I took the design from off-plane. The Stensians, at the very least, still steep their coffee in linen bags. Grab me two mugs?" She tilted her head in the direction of the wall they were hung on.

"Yeah, sure." He headed over and grabbed two as instructed. "You're having some too?"

"Mm-hmm. My common guests these days are more… night-owls than early-birds. I find it hard to get to sleep before the crack of dawn now." She laughed, and Ral was sure he was supposed to find it endearing, but it came off more as a cackle to him under his regard of her.

"Come to the sitting room," Lili said as poured both their coffees and took one. She left the press to be cleaned by the help.

Ral had to purse his lips to keep from asking why she had a whole godsdamned room for _sitting_. He didn't need to insult her every chance he got; he did appreciate the coffee, after all.

"By the way, while Jace asked me to keep your future-past secret, you asked me to share a few important details," Liliana said conversationally, like she was discussing the weather.

"Oh?"

Liliana sat on a plush white chair and set her mug down on the coffee table in front of her. Ral took the opposite chair, and set to drinking the dark elixir eagerly. He made eye contact with Liliana as finished his first sip and averted his gaze. "Eh, it's coffee," he dismissed, refusing to admit it was the best coffee he'd ever been served in his life.

Liliana's smirk told him he hadn't fooled her in the slightest.

"First, I'm to break the news that this is not your last stop on this journey. You have a fair bit of walking ahead of you."

Ral scoffed and muttered," Figures." He scratched at his beard, loathing that he would probably have to spend more than a week with this much hair on his face. It wouldn't be so bad if it was trimmed, but he didn't like the texture it was starting to grow into.

"I could clean that up for you," Liliana offered with a small giggle.

"I wouldn't trust you with a blade to my throat, no offense," he said perhaps a little too quickly.

She dismissed his worry with a wave of the hand. "Oh, honey, I don't need a razor to kill you. There are easier ways of killing and preserving the body for a decent zombie."

"See, that doesn't really placate me for some reason."

"Suit yourself, I guess," She said lightly. Then her voice dropped to a serious tone as she said," Dire warning. Don't go too far back in time."

"What, why?"

"I wasn't always able to get to Ravnica, dear. That's a relatively new development. If you end up temporarily stranded off-plane, you may have to wait decades to repair your gauntlet."

" _Please_ ," he scoffed. "We went seventy-two years into the past and had no problems."

"Aren't you lucky you didn't accidently planeswalk," Lili said dryly. A zombie shambled up, delivering a platter with sugar and cream to the coffee table. She dismissed her zombie back to patrolling her property before turning her attention to measuring out the proper amount of sweetness.

"You mean to tell me planeswalkers are new to Ravnica?"

"I couldn't walk there until six decades before your departure date. Take that as you will."

Ral fell quiet as he thought over the implications of this new information brought swirling in his head. Maybe it was the stronger coffee or the late hour, or perhaps the touch of undeath that hung in the manor's halls, but Ral felt suddenly dizzy and sick.

He was used to toying with his own life and that of the teams below him. A few goblins here and some weirds there, the occasional drake, had fallen—or more likely exploded—under his lead; no one in the League expected a particularly long lifespan. It made his stomach churn to think he almost trapped Jace in the past though. The ramifications to Ravnica alone were sickening to think about. The last time the Guildpact fell, the Izzet League had been in shambles for half a century. It still had been considered fallen when he joined, and it was only his ambition and connection to the Firemind that made him able to rekindle the dragon's interest in his guild again, and only because he found the maze as a tantalizing puzzle.

Ral adjusted the dials on his belt and cleared his throat. "Anything else I should know?"

"You have two, maybe three, uses of your gauntlet being outfitted with gold before it starts to tarnish."

"Gold," Ral scoffed. "Gold may be no mizzium, but do you know how reactive it is? It doesn't oxidize for shit."

Liliana shrugged, sipping her coffee and looking away like this wasn't her problem and she didn't much care if he took her advice. "You told me silver was better for your timewalking."

"Okay, fine. Noted. Thanks. What else?"

"Jace swings both ways," she said softly, continuing to sip her coffee calmly as Ral sputtered. With an innocent shrug this time, she looked back and said," Just things you told me you needed to know."

"I- There's no real—I mean, Jace—"

"Ral," she cut him off with a severe voice. "Cut it out. I am a centuries old sorceress who has wielded and used relationships like they were dispensable for too long. I can tell when someone is absolutely smitten with another. I just ask that you take care of him."

"What do you care?"

She cast her gaze down and sighed. "I hurt him. I wounded him so deeply, he still hasn't healed from it. I betrayed his trust when I was the only one he thought he had left in the Multiverse." She rubbed at one eye, but played it off as getting rid of a pesky eyelash. "I put myself first, and like everyone else, him last. Please, I don't want to see him hurt again."

"That's all well and good that you can regret the past, but how does that help him now?" Ral felt a protective rise in energy, and swiftly adjusted the dials on his belt.

Lilana nibbled on her lip, then took a sip of coffee. Then, she ran out of passable hesitations that wouldn't incriminate her as someone who felt _vulnerable_. Sighing and setting her mug down so she could inspect her nails, she said," It doesn't— _just the regret_ doesn't help, that is. I had a lot of growing up to do yet, last he saw me. And I know you do too. I'm concerned for him too late, and I can't undo what I did, but I can see to it that no one else ever makes my same mistakes."

Not that he'd dream of hurting Jace, but feeling bold and not wanting Liliana to keep the power over their conversation like she had consistently seemed to every conversation thus far, Ral asked with a jokingly spooky voice," What you gonna do, _zombify me_?"

"Yes," she said gravely," If you ever betray his trust."

Ral believed her. It suddenly became hard to swallow.

Standing and taking her coffee with her, Liliana yawned, a dainty yawn hidden behind a perfectly poised hand. "It's almost sun up, and I suppose I should be awake by noon at the very latest if I'm going to be the hostess for you two. I'll retire now."

Making her way to the master bedroom, she said lightly," Feel free to more coffee, now that you know how to use the press. Just don't break anything, please. Try not to electrocute the help."

"Right…"

She looked back as she made the doorway, and dipped her head as she said," Good night, Zarek."

"Uh, you too… your grace?" He was a lot more afraid of getting on her bad side after this short conversation, and strangely found her a little more agreeable than before. She had bestowed quite a bit of useful knowledge, as well as sufficiently threatened him. All in all, a normal and productive day.


	35. Chapter 35

An ominous, pounding sound emanated through the manor.

In the middle of afternoon tea, Liliana stiffened and sat straight up. "They're never this early," she mumbled, checking her time piece to verify if was mid afternoon. 

Jace looked her to with a raised eyebrow and asked," Who?"

"No one, but I shouldn't really have you two around when they come in," she said distractedly as she got up and headed over to a decorative cabinet. She pulled on the leather gorget she'd worn the first night and began lacing it up.

"Her normal company, that are night-owls," Ral filled in with narrowed eyes. "Let me guess, this plane's vampires." He remembered the book Jace had pulled from a shelf for him. Vampires were in control of most of this continent, as well as most of Innistrad after the Eldrazi. "Politics," he said with a bit of a puff to the first syllable to emphasize the word.

With an exasperated sigh, Liliana conceded," Yes, vampires. And I didn't schedule today as a dinner date, so you two best be off."

Grimacing as he imagined sallow faced monsters salivating over his neck, Ral said," Fair enough. Let's go."

"I'd like to talk to Sorin, actually," Jace objected, resisting as Ral pulled on his sleeve.

"You can't," Liliana off handedly said. "Help me with the bow?"

She came over with her hair lifted off her neck, and Jace got to his feet to help as she asked of him. The thin leather was hard to pull tight without strangling her in the process, but Jace managed and she pulled away and adjusted the gorget with an appreciative smile.

Now that he was standing, he was a lot easier to pull along. He gave a small yelp of protestation as she grabbed the thick leather of his lapel and pulled him along. "Zarek," she said sharply, pleased that he followed, no questions asked.

Leading them to the corridor that ended with an exit to her expansive backyard, she said," It's been lovely seeing you. Catch you again in the past."

A small herd of zombies corralled them and urged them down the hallway.

It was all so quick, Jace didn't even have the chance to say goodbye. When they made it outside, the door was shut quickly behind them and Jace was left staring back at it.

"C'mon, she said there are vampires in there, and we're not allowed," Ral said, urging Jace to follow him as he grabbed his hand.

"You're going along with this way too easily," Jace accused.

Ral shivered, though he'd blame the stiff breeze. "I'm really not a fan of the undead. Not living? Fine. Reliving? No thanks." He wasn't even so much of a fan of artificial intelligence, though most that he'd been acquainted with hardly counted.

"A third of our Guildmeet is alive because of death magic," Jace retorted.

"Yeah, but I know them, and they have a standing agreement not to bring me into their way of unlife, just like I respectfully don't electrocute them." Their excuses were easy for Ral to write off. It didn't hurt that Jarad actually seemed to be good guy, Mirko largely stuck to himself, and Teysa was fun to argue with. Teysa was still technically alive-live yet too; she wouldn't go onto ghosthood for quite sometime, even it was through the black arts she had kept her youth so long. 

Jace rolled his eyes as he began walking into the forest, Ral at his side. Adjusting his coat, Jace was glad to have the extra layer in the late fall weather. He looked to Ral though, in only the collared shirt the kor had outfitted him in, and offered," You want my leather coat?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Catch me reciting children's prayers before you'll catch me walking through the woods donning _your_ fashion sense."

"There's nothing wrong with my sense of fashion," Jace whined. First Lili, then Chandra, and now Ral? It wasn't fair. He never ribbed on them for having a lousy taste in fashion. Then again, he thought they all looked quite good in their choice of wear. "I'll have you know, many respected my cloak and its refined, runic look."

"Maybe those who have no talent in spellcraft," Ral laughed.

"At least I look respectable to some, instead of being held at arm's length for fear of what crazy invention you might have up your sleeve," Jace retorted.

"Bah, the Izzet just know how to have fun," Ral dismissed, letting the conversation deescalate. Looking around the misty, dark forest, Ral tentatively asked," Do you know where we're going?"

The dirt path was laid out for them, but Jace honestly had no idea where it lead, and he couldn't remember which cardinal direction they were headed. They couldn't see where the sun was in the sky with the eternal twilight Innistrad was famous for during its daytime.

"No clue. Want to head to Ravnica?"

"Not quite ready," Ral said with a short shake of his head. "Come nightfall, I think I will be, but by then, I'll probably be able to manage a timewalk anyways."

"So we just have to survive 'til nightfall," Jace muttered," On Innistrad… Great."

The unenthusiastic grumble from his partner cued Ral it was going to be exactly as fun as he thought it would be after their first night's run for survival. He was suddenly feeling a lot more open to joining a church, if it was only for a night.

"So this plane is pretty much just filled to the brim with things that want to kill us, isn't it?"

"If the Golgari hunting grounds were an entire plane, yeah, that'd be Innistrad. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, skaabs, easily incited cults—"

"What is a _skaab_?"

Jace grimaced and shook his head. "Maybe we just won't run into any."

They trudged down the path because they didn't know where else to go, and it quickly became mundane how the mist pulled at their ankles and the chill of death clutched around their throats. They were just sick of walking.

"So what's up with that moon?" Ral finally asked as a silence set in, not liking the quiet accompanying them in this unsettling forest.

"What?"

"The moon. It looked funny last night. What's up with that?"

"Oh, that would be the glyph we inscribed using Tamiyo's story to trap Emrakul in the moon."

Ral stopped walking.

"You mean to tell me that… _thing_ is just… trapped in Innistrad's moon?" Flashes of the terrible entity Jace had shared in a nightmare tore through his brain. He'd never seen Emrakul proper, but the voices assuring they'd become one sent chills down his spine.

"Um, yeah," Jace said with a small shrug.

Ral had remembered the name of the plane, and idly noted that this was the place Jace's nightmare had taken place, but he hadn't really put it all together. This was Innistrad.

Innistrad, where angels—beacons of hope—were mutilated into horrific beings of ensnaring sinew and bifurcated limbs, and those they shepherded had to fight off their madness lest they fall to it themselves.

They had made it pretty far from Lili's mansion by now. "Why don't we camp here?" Ral suggested. "I mean, if there's nothing trying to kill us right now, that's got to be a good start to resting up for timewalking, right?"

" Sure," Jace agreed.

"Good, because I'm pretty tired."

"Yeah, you never came to bed last night," Jace said with a bit of a grin. "Couldn't catch a wink of sleep myself."

Ral almost bit out a question of how Jace thought he'd felt the night Jace was drinking with Liliana, but he didn't want to start an argument. He just wanted sleep. And anyways, he was pretty sure Jace was putting those thoughts into perspective by himself right now with how his smile fell.

"So, are we…"

Ral raised an eyebrow and asked," What? Are we what?"

"We're both worried about each other, and well…" Jace rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Never mind. I'm just overthinking things."

Ral shrugged and said," Aren't you always?"

"And I suppose you're not?"

Ral laughed and admitted," Okay, that's fair."

They both fell into an easy rhythm of putting a camp together. Even if the woods were terrifyingly grim, this was a lot better than when they'd crashed on Zendikar. Getting a small fire going was simple, and Jace spun some scrying cantrips to protect them so they could let their guards down a little. A couple of hours passed easily, light work almost being more restful than simply sitting because it gave their hands something to do.

Jace sat down by the fire Ral made, happy to dry his boots a little. As he reached for his journal, his hand stilled and a chill went down his spine. "My journal. We didn't have time to grab my journal," he said forlornly.

Ral looked at Jace, sitting across the campfire from him, and twisted his lips up in a pout. "Then I guess we go back."

Jace looked up in surprise. "What about the vampires?" Ral had been really afraid of them when practically pushing him out of the mansion in concert with Lili.

Glaring at the fire with a sneer of disgust, Ral gritted out," We go back _stealthily_."

A spike of dread ran down Ral's back like a cold sweat, and Jace acknowledged the sacrifice Ral was making for him—or more precisely for his attachment to a simple object like a common journal. "Thanks, Ral. It means a lot to me."

"I know."

"I meant your helping me to get it back, that means a lot to me."

Ral shrugged. "You'd do the same for me." In truth, Jace had already done well more. Helping him put his gear back together could not have been fun. Dealing with all the outbursts and the frantic engineering had to be quite a headache, but he'd stayed by his side and helped him through it anyways. The least Ral could do was travel a mile back and sneak into a mansion and grab a journal.

"Do we go now, or do we wait," Jace wondered aloud.

"Well, I know nothing about Innistradi Vampires, but I can't imagine they get less dangerous at night, so I guess now is the time, right?"

Jace stood up, encouraged by Ral's assessment, and Ral joined him after swishing the fire out with a prompt gust of wind.

Their trek seemed all the more foreboding as the sun got trapped behind a mountain in its descent, no longer filtering through the mist ominously, but heralding Innistrad's night. Jace turned up his leather collar as the wind grew brisk and cold, cutting at his jaw bitterly. He looked to Ral with a little concern, but the storm mage just embarrassedly looked away as their eyes met.

As her manor came into view, Ral finally looked back to Jace and asked," Alright, so where is it?"

"I left my journal on your nightstand," Jace answered. He began to wonder why Liliana had rushed them out without even letting him grab it. What good was an everflowing pen if he didn't have his journal?

"Okay, and let's see, I think I could see that tree over there from my window," Ral muttered mostly to himself as he had to triangulate which creepy window had been his for the past two days. He motioned for Jace to follow him as he trudged through a flower bed towards the window he suspected was their target.

Jace craned his neck to look up at the window and asked," How do we enter?" His telekinesis was not going to get him up there without some climbing of which he was dubious he could handle.

"Oh, get up there? I got that no problem."

With a flash and percussive crack of thunder, Ral vaulted himself up the window, just barely securing a grip on the house before he came falling back to the dead flowers he left Jace standing in.

He was glad he hadn't thought to lock the window, and that no one else had done so since they left. It was still not a skill he was particularly proficient at, opening a window from outside, and it left him feeling like he was balancing a little precariously as he secured himself with one hand to jimmy the window open with the other.

Looking on a little anxiously, Jace readied to slow Ral's descent as much as possible should he slip. He watched as Ral finally got the window to slide open, then wondered why Ral didn't move from holding the window up.

"I… I don't know how to hold the window in place," Ral whispered, then repeated loud enough that Jace could hear on the ground. "The window will slide right back down if I don't put something in the way, but I can't grab the window prop without letting go of the house."

Jace pondered their situation lightly. "Can you see the journal?"

Sticking his head in passed the curtains, Ral scoured the room quickly. He withdrew and looked down to Jace to give a visible nod.

" _Okay_ ," Jace projected, as he opened a scrying presence in Ral's head. " _Then just locate the journal, and I'll bring it to you._ "

Scrying through someone's eyes was easier than through arbitrary space, but it had obvious drawbacks. Jace had brought the journal most of the way to the window with his telekinesis when a sharp sound at the door drew Ral's eyes away. With no guidance, Jace accidentally brought it back into Ral's eye and unsettled the balance Ral had holding onto the mansion.

"I saw a vampire; we're leaving," Ral shouted as he slipped and fell towards Jace, journal clutched tightly in his hand.

It was the buffer of his fall slowing just that fraction Jace enabled with his weak telekinesis that allowed him to turn the safeties off and initiate a full timewalk as he collided with Jace.


	36. Chapter 36

It was Ral who led them this time. He had been anticipating the breach in the aether and the second their souls snapped out of existence, he clawed his way home. He still would never be nearly as smooth at traversing the Blind Eternities as Jace, but he was pretty proud as he pulled Jace with him to the plane _he_ wanted to go to.

As they set down in Ravnica, they were bowled over and fell to the ground sprawling. The ground beneath them was no longer soft dirt, but abrasive brick, and Ral had never been so pleased to jar his wrists on the unforgiving pavement. Having landed on top in the tumble, Ral quickly got to his feet and offered a hand up to Jace, beaming ear to ear as he looked around.

Ral happily breathed in the smell of the city. From the smell of sweat to the smell oil and soot, it all seemed so much more right than the rotting forest and spilled blood of Innistrad or the sweet jungle and foreign rain of Zendikar.

Turning to Jace, Ral enthusiastically asked," So, what's the date and time?"

Jace pulled his timepiece out and opened it expectantly. He frowned at the complicated clock as he saw the hands whirling backwards. "It must have to wind itself to the right time. I don't know."

Ral stroked his moustache, which he noticed he'd been doing much more now that he'd grown it out so long. "Well, I guess that's still better than nothing. Even if we hole up in some pub for a day, it would be easier to wait for it to align than to try and investigate and make ourselves conspicuous."

"No need," Jace said, but Ral narrowed his eyes at the mind mage in front of him, whose lips never moved. "You're about eleven years off."

Taking in Jace's eyes widening with surprise and locating the voice to being behind him, Ral looked back over his shoulder. "Two Jace's. That's new."

"I wish," the Jace beside him mumbled under his breath, but before Ral could ask more, quickly asked at full voice," So you've come to offer us a place to stay while we prepare to jump to the right time?"

"Offer you a place to stay, yes," the older Jace assented," Though I'm afraid I can't be any help with getting both of you to your present."

Ral rolled his eyes. Sure, Liliana was a little help, future Jace was no help… What was the point of running into people they knew if none of them could really help? 

"So, when do I get to meet me?" Ral didn't bother hiding his interest. If one person promised to help him get ahead, it would be himself. 

The older Jace shrugged apologetically. "Unfortunately you're off plane right now."

"Me?" Ral looked between the two Jace's. "You expect me to believe _I'm_ off plane without this dork?"

His Jace shot him a disapproving glare, but Ral ignored it. He crossed his arms expectantly, his gauntlet getting a little in the way but he naturally compensated for it.

"Well, you don't have to take my word for it, take his," Jace pawned off on his younger self.

Ral looked to his partner, who nodded back, and stared calculatingly. Then he groaned. "Don't tell me I joined your stupid Gatewatch." 

"I'm not telling you anything," Jace said, a victorious and amused smile quirking his lips. "You're drawing conclusions on very little information."

" _Very little information, he says. Don't tell me you forget Zendikar and Innistrad_ ," Ral thought flippantly to his Jace. Him leaving plane was a _lot_ of information.

" _No, I don't forget those two planes_ ," the older Jace broke into their private conversation, then spoke aloud," Don't tell me you forgot I'm an experienced mind mage."

Ral nearly had a conniption as he realized Jace2 was going to be twice as irritating, invasive, and impossible to deal with.

"That's the reaction I usually have when I have to deal with myself," the Jace beside him muttered with a self-deprecating smile and sigh.

"That's it, I'm catching some time away from you two. Maybe I'll check out Nivix," Ral grumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Ah, unfortunately," The elder Jace interrupted, pulling gently on Ral's sleeve with telekinesis to keep him from getting too far in his plans," I can't let you do that."

Looking at his older self suspiciously, Jace narrowed his eyes and asked," What do you mean?"

It didn't sit well in his stomach that when he peered into the other's mind now, it was a void. Completely blank like Lazov. Even those who were experienced with mind magic and could raise defenses registered as _something_.

"Oh, I'm literally raising the sense of void in my mind as my defense against mind magic. A little disorienting, I'm sure," Jace said as he regarded his younger self, feeling the suspicion. "Some… Tensions… have risen, and our position of Guildpact is integral in settling it. Lavinia has understandably recommended I don't give away any of the proceedings or events that lead to this situation."

The two Jace's stared intently at each other, moments passing quietly but intensely. Ral was cut off from the conversation, perhaps because he wouldn't understand it or they thought he wouldn't. Ral could tell there was a private conversation going on, but he refused to have his voice ignored, and spoke up," Well, if there's a problem at hand, then what better than to send a scientist to evaluate it?" His gauntlet lit up with the intent of his words: he was ready to help hands on.

"We're not adding one more hotheaded, mad scientist to the mess," the older mind mage quickly made clear.

"Like hells we're not," Ral said bitterly, bristling at being told what he could and couldn't do for his own guild. "I'm Izzet through and through. If I can help my—"

"You don't understand, Ral," Jace cut in, but Ral had turned around and didn't know or care which one spoke.

"Yeah, I don't get it. I'm not a part of your mystical mind bull—" Two presences entered his head and both backed off immediately as he lashed out with his mind, an unpracticed whip of emotion and no formal defense. 

"No, no, no," Ral bit out, waving his hands. "You don't get to make up for leaving me out. I'm heading to Nivix and I'm going to help my fucking guild." He left without further ado, leaving a drizzling trail in his sparking wake.

_You didn't care if he went_ , Jace realized, reading his elder's mind.

Meeting his younger self's gaze smugly, he admitted, _I had to give him some token resistance, but no, I didn't expect to keep him here._

Their thoughts flowed fluidly, not needing to rely on constructed language to transfer full and total knowledge and feeling.

"It will be a miracle the day Guildmage Zarek puts anyone above the Izzet League," the older Jace remarked aloud, and his companion couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"What do you say we grab some tea, Lavinia," Jace asked, giving his younger counterpart a small smirk and a wink.

"Of course, Guildpact," Jace answered, squaring his shoulders and donning her appearance. She didn't strike him as one who would change her appearance drastically, even over a decade, so he felt fairly confident the image he took of her would be close enough. The background presence in the back of his mind confirmed his disguise was good enough.

"I've scheduled an hour into your day to have tea at any Orzhov establishment of your choosing." Jace's performance was a little too enthusiastic, his excitement for what had just been a daily norm in his time before timewalking coloring the words that should have been regimented and collected. He didn't really care though, Lavinia could sue him for misappropriation later.

They shared stifled laughter at the slightly off, but familiar, procedure before heading out into the tenth precinct.

~~  
~~

It was all the little things that people ignored all the time that drove Jace to conclude he was genuinely annoying. The way he sipped his tea, smiled like he knew something others didn't, bit at his lower lip nervously, how his brow quirked too often like he thought every godsdamned thing he said was interesting—It was like staring in a mirror and picking out every detail he didn't like. Things he wouldn't even notice, or dismiss if he did, of other people stood out dramatically from his older self, and made Jace glad he was wearing someone else's appearance. Who would want to be taken for the guy he was sitting across from?

He drummed his fingers while he waited for his tea and turnover, and younger Jace suddenly found it irritating and rude, despite catching himself in the same action and vexedly clasping his hands together so he could no longer echo the nettlesome behavior.

"No, you never outgrow being impatient. No, I'm not reading your mind—you know that. Yes, it's just like Innistrad all over again. Yes, we're being hypercritical, but yes, every run in with yourself is going to be like this," Jace answered all the unasked questions, looking his younger self in the eyes sympathetically. He averted his gaze and muttered," Or worse."

"You really do need to be less hard on yourself though," he tagged on, almost like he believed it would ever happen.

"So, I'm assuming this conversation will be as frustrating as my conversation with Lili."

With a dorky shrug and all-knowing smile, the older Jace answered," It certainly will be no less."

Well that just figured, Jace thought, rolling his eyes. "Great, that's exactly how I like to enjoy my tea, with a cryptic conversation."

"That _is_ how you like to enjoy your tea, you idiot."

"Ugh, I hate talking to myself. You can catch all my bluffs."

"Only as well as you catch mine. I don't have that much more information on things than you do. Eleven years is a relatively short time in the grand scheme of things."

The younger Jace had to roll his eyes yet again. "Just because you talk to elder dragons and ageless planeswalkers doesn't make you one of them. You still have a third of my life on me, twice the remembered experience than I do."

"The older you get, the shorter a day feels. Everything is relative, and time only stretches as you have more behind you."

Jace wanted to rip his hair out at how pretentious his older self sounded. Did he really come off this pompous? Jace was only just able to restrain himself and not acquaint his head with the table and bury his head in embarrassment.

"Well, O' Wizened One," Jace asked, blushing a little as he realized he sounded like Lili," Are we just going to babble about how annoying we are in equal measure, or can we discuss actually interesting topics?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Jace looked around at their surroundings. The roof patio they'd been seated at allowed a beautiful view of Ravnica. Not much had seemed to change, honestly. Eleven years _was_ a rather short period of time. Societies tended not to change much in just decades, but small companies did. "I don't suppose we could talk about the Gatewatch?"

"Limitedly, but yes."

"Can I see them later?

"No."

He looked down to his tea bitterly, and mumbled," Expected as much."

"We get new members, and I can't let your knowledge of them interfere with how you interact with them when you meet them," Jace excused.

"I know," the younger Jace sighed, understanding but being a touch disappointed.

He sipped his tea and closed his eyes, trying to let the dismay drift away so he could fully savor the ludicrously expensive tea he'd been craving for well over a month. After setting it down and gathering himself for a second, he met his older self's eyes and asked," Does Ral really join?"

With a small shrug, Jace uselessly answered," What do you think?" 

Was this how normal people felt all the time? His older self's mind was securely locked up, and Jace had nothing to grab from, just a stupid mouth with stupid, useless words. Trying not to seem too invested but being truly curious, he hastily appealed," I already know him, so knowing wouldn't change my introduction with him."

Jace never overtly answered him, but he did lower his mental barrier ever so slightly, and within a second, they both knew.

"So, new members means it's still going," Jace assumed pretty safely.

"Long enough to gain new members," was all the confirmation he was given.

Jace thought over what he could ask and reasonably hope to be answered. Even as he began to ask his next question, he saw an insufferable smirk come to the other's face, and Jace felt himself die a little inside. A person couldn't possibly be this unbearable. 

He could, apparently, Jace concluded as he found himself embroiled in a frustrating dance of wits that left him none the wiser after several cups of tea and talk enough to fill a novella.


	37. Chapter 37

"It's just about time," Jace said, taking out a timepiece from his satchel.

"Time?" Lavinia's lookalike echoed.

"We should go collect our storm mage," he answered with the quirk of an amused smirk playing at his lips. Younger Jace had a feeling he was going to look forward to reliving this day.

After their excursion was properly paid and tipped for, the two made way to a guildless district. It was such a short trip, but it filled Jace with so many questions. Everything seemed so close to the same as the day he left the present, but there were enough significant changes that Jace could probably spend days just in the Tenth Precinct marking down changes and fill the better half of his journal.

"Don't get any ideas. You're not supposed to alter history."

Jace regarded his older self and casually asked," Can I?"

"You and Ral haven't taken the time to iron out your personal code of temporal interaction, nor have you scratched the surface on this form of timewalking's capabilities and limitations."

"So you're implying we'll timewalk again after this mess of an experiment," Jace concluded, then physically froze and looked to his older self with a grim frown. "Or we'll be trapped running in circles much longer than we ever imagined." His disguised visage fell as he found his mind wrapped up with this new thought.

Even with the revelation that sometimes they might planeswalk and sometimes the gauntlet might breakdown, the general attitude they'd held together thus far was that they were on the cusp of getting home. They were just a walk or two away. If they walked long enough and enough times to truly confirm any theories they might propose… 

Jace was gripped with a sudden pain of acute homesickness. The wonders of not quite right Ravnica no longer seemed fascinating, nor admirable, just alienating and cold. He began walking stiffly, embarrassed and relieved how older Jace let him take the lead enough so his face couldn't be seen. A pensive look was rather characteristic of him, but the upward draw of his brow and the particular way he bit his lip gave away much more dreadful anxiety than he usually liked to let on.

"If it helps," the older mind mage began," My current existence promises you make it back, and implies you didn't lose years to timewalking."

Now that brought another thought to mind. They were going to be older, not significantly but measurably so, than everyone else knew them to be when they returned.

"You can't give me a solid answer, can you? How many more jumps, what we need to do to figure it out. Any precautionary advice so we don't massively set ourselves behind like back on Zendikar?"

"You don't really need me to answer those questions. And as for the first one, there's rhetorical and there's wasting your breath."

"Well, you should be used to that," Jace snapped back. He should go back to obsessively studying in silence. At least he could save others' ears from his pompous observations.

They continued on in silence for a while, both Jace's only sighing occasionally and both Jace's finding the other's affected sigh to be over dramatic and annoying. 

Jace was able to lead despite not knowing the end destination thanks to minute suggestions implanted under his conscious thought. Even with the relief it brought him, not having to rely on following—or even worse, being side by side with—himself, Jace found himself able to be pissed off at the showoff using his mind magic so mundanely instead of just saying "turn left here".

"You well know that my voice is grating on your last nerves and you'd be even more querulous if I was voicing every direction," Jace complained, frustratedly glaring a hole into the back of his younger self. _How could he be this impudent back then?_

"Like you've changed," Jace growled. " _Stay out of my head!_ "

"Then stop being a churlish prick." The words rang out at the same time as," _You know I have to have put a lot of effort into maintaining our timeline. You're not even open with people when dealing with a stable, uncomplicated mess like what you've created here._ "

Jace scoffed," What, you make it out like this wasn't your doing! _We_ got ourselves in this mess." It was best they'd made their way into an unfrequented alley; their voices only got louder and louder. " _Maybe maintaining the timeline isn't important. I'm sure a few people would be glad if I never became you._ "

"You're not even attacking my reasoning. You're just attacking me. A pitiful debate tactic. I know I wasn't this vapid eleven years ago. Step up."

Before Jace could construct a witty reparté, the two's argument was interrupted by," While fascinating and potentially hilarious, I don't suppose you two could be persuaded to give it a rest and help me out, could you?"

Not before glowering at his older self with burning contempt, Jace looked down astoundedly, baffled upon his realization that Ral's face was upside down and only a foot off the ground. The rest of his body was swallowed up in some crystalized goo—sap?—that had littered the walls of this whole alleyway and not stood out until Ral spoke up.

"Ral?" Jace's entire argument with his older self fell away he bent down and asked," How did you get yourself in… that?" Jace eyed the structure of goo with a mixed expression of horror and disgust.

"Long story," Ral dismissed, unable to blush as his face was already beet red.

A pup, some mix of dog and frog that Jace recalled the Simic working on before he left his time, hopped up and began licking Ral's face. It took all of Jace's steel to not break out laughing as Ral just let his head go slack and muttered something to the effect of," Not fucking this again."

"Been a long day, I take it?"

Ral let his focus go passed the Jace a few feet away and lock onto the older Jace that stood a few steps away with crossed arms. "I don't suppose you're actually going to help me out instead of asking useless questions?"

The way Jace flinched away like he'd been shocked and then deferred to his older self with a bowed head made Ral's stomach knot up.

"I mean, since you've probably already seen how this unfolds," Ral tried to smooth over. His ability to care about how they felt was a little hampered by the extreme pressure in his head and how faint he already was from breathing difficulty.

"Of course, I'll find a simic mage to get the right solvent," the older Jace said, before grinning and suggesting," Why don't you stay behind and protect him from the savage frog mutant."

"Sure," Jace huffed, warily testing the wall to make sure it wasn't sticky before plopping down and sitting back against the cystalized wall moodily, crossed arms on knees and and all.

Ral watched the older Jace walk away calmly, then turned his attention to his Jace and awkwardly echoed," So, long day?"

"Shut up," Jace said bitterly. 

"Sheesh," Ral scoffed," Touchy, I see."

"He's not going to be back for at least twenty minutes," Jace revealed. "Can we be a little less caustic as we pass the time?"

 _Says the guy who just bit my head off for opening conversation_ , Ral thought to himself, though he long ago made peace with the fact it was never guaranteed to be private. From the flat glare Jace sent his way, Ral's suspicion Jace overheard was confirmed.

"He's just so unbearable," Jace said through gritted teeth. Letting his head tilt back and covering his eyes with his hands, he asked," How can you stand talking to me?"

A cheesy grin came to Ral's inverted face and he slyly said," I generally stand with my feet, but circumstances as they are, why don't we just hang out?"

"Ral," Jace whined.

A little less flippantly, Ral said," You're not so bad."

"Are you kidding me? I got tea with the man and I am considering the temporal implications of becoming a hermit in the Underdark so no one ever has to see me again," Jace cried out dramatically.

"You mean you would actually stay on this gods forsaken plane and do your job as Guildpact," Ral entreated facetiously, a shit-eating grin coming to his face as Jace glared at him.

Jace shifted, the wall's irregular growth jutting awkwardly against his back. "That stuff is so uncomfortable," Jace complained as he gave up trying to find an agreeable angle and just scooted away.

"I'll try to be trapped a little less inconveniently next time," Ral deadpanned.

Jace looked back sheepishly. "How _did_ you get yourself caught up in this?"

"I will take that to my grave," Ral solemnly answered. While trying to hold a firm, uncompromising look with Jace, he groaned softly and closed his eyes, which didn't really help relieve any discomfort. The pressure on his head and eyes was killing him and straining his vision. It made looking around even harder, along with the complete inversion that was messing with him.

"No, no, no, no—You're supposed to be saving me from this savage monster," Ral whined as the small slimy tongue of the mutant pup began to lick his cheek again. He could only crane his neck to get his face so far away, and the pup's tongue was freakishly long.

"Sorry," Jace said through a fit of giggling at the great, powerful storm mage being defeated by a rather odd but strangely adorable frog-dog pup. He shooed the mutant away after indulging a second more at Ral's plight, then commented," He seems to like you."

"He just likes the honey," Ral muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing," Ral answered too hastily

Jace idly created an illusion of a squirrel skittering here and there to distract the pup, his face glum as the short lived amusement faded.

"What's up? Talking to yourself can't be _that_ bad."

"Nothing," Jace unconvincingly dismissed.

Ral fixed a disbelieving look on Jace and deadpanned," Sure, it's nothing."

Jace's response was to adjust himself so his back was to Ral and focus even more on the simple illusion of the squirrel. He had to lift his chin to see it as he sent it scampering just out of the pup's daring leap. 

"C'mon, Jace. Look at me," Ral appealed. When Jace hesitantly did, Ral did his best to leave out the rampant sarcasm his voice normally held and said," You've seen me at my worst, Jace—" He took a second to look up pointedly at his current predicament. "—You can be honest with me."

"I was," Jace muttered, letting his gaze return to the mutant pup. "I want to go home," he said even more softly. "I'm sick of adventuring."

"We're almost there," Ral said certainly.

"Are we? Because the arrogant jackass who's been leading me around in circles all day has yet to give me a definitive answer that we're not stuck for tons of failed jumps more. The best he could promise is we don't lose 'years' to timewalking. So, what, we could have another few _months_ of this mother of rains _minotaur shit_?"

"Maybe," Ral acknowledged. He stared at his feet, the strange occurrence of the sky being his boots' backdrop temporarily ignored. "I'm sorry. " _I should have ran more math, known for sure how to get back. I should have never even let you get involved. If I hadn't let you get mixed up, you'd be back in your office right now, doing paperwork galore. I might be missing, but Ravnica can do without one lousy Izzet Guildmage… Her Guildpact, though—_

"Ral," Jace hurriedly interrupted the downward spiraling internal monologue," The Izzet League would notice your disappearance. _I_ would. You best believe I would be searching for how to get you back once I figured out where you'd gone."

"But how would you even begin? And anyways, why would you—"

Jace interrupted and reminded," I came checking in on you when you skipped of few Guildmeets."

Ral was left speechless, unprepared for such a simple, true statement that proved that maybe people gave a damn about him, even back when he was just some Izzet diplomat, and not Jace's only chance of getting home.

Jace's expression fell from forced neutrality to concern and he breathed Ral's name, about to say something. His eyebrows shot up and he quickly stood up, putting space between them physically and emotionally, and he called," Glad to see you found someone!"

The older mind mage was being trailed by an anxious Simic Guildmage who held a solvent potent enough Ral and Jace could smell it from where they were.

Ral put up a fuss at the slow and tedious task, as it turned out to be, of prying him out of the wall. The mage that older Jace had found was skilled but cautious, explaining that the solvent would go right through mere human flesh, and probably the bone, with ease. None of the unmutated humans present had much cared to let him prattle on about how properly mutated skin would be a little more resilient, and the the helper quickly became terse and singly focused on the job at hand, clearly a little miffed at being blown off.

When the structure was sufficiently weakened, the three of them were able to break him out, huge chunks of the crystallized sap still sticking to Ral's skin, leaving him largely immobile.

"Thank you for your time," Both Jace's said, as one took Ral's arm on either side. In tandem, they glared at each other quietly then turned their attention to Ral.

"G-give me… Give me a moment on the ground," Ral mumbled, what he hoped was coherently. His stomach churned at the sensation of blood entering his legs again. His lungs were relieved at the reduced pressure from his other organs bearing down on them, and he didn't feel the need to stress himself with being upright immediately, still dizzy from his extended stay upside down.

"Here's a much weaker potency," the Simic mage said, handing over a gourd filled with more reeking solvent. "Use it like a soap to strip the rest from his skin. It will be a long bath."

Ral moaned how this was just his luck, sparks starting to dance from the cracks that revealed little bits of his body. He couldn't adjust his dampener, the knobs were yet encased under the vile crystalline substance, so he focused on his side of control, breathing exercises and such.

"Well, let's get him home," Jace said with a sigh, trying to figure out just how they'd manage. He put the gourd in his satchel and looked to his younger self expectantly, their minds knitting together to make their effort as seamless as possible as they tried to lift Ral with their telekinesis. 

That would be the smoothest journey for the storm mage, as he was certainly not walking back with his ankles glued together. One covered invisibility, the other a walking illusion of a man, so that no one would accidentally bump into Ral's floating body. They carried him upright, just an inch or two off the ground.

"Krokt, this is weird," Ral commented under his breath. Enough of the hardened sap had broken at the joints so his arms were free and while his ankles were stuck together, his knees were able to bend mostly unimpeded. He quickly made use of this discovery, swinging his lower legs until the hardened sap would make an odd, low sound of impact with itself.

"Would you stop," his Jace asked," You're making it much more difficult."

"You guys need bonding time. It's a test or something," Ral hastily excused, not stopping for even a second. The weightlessness was too interesting to pass up. He was used to being airborne—any committed Izzet mage could get themself off the ground—but having to construct a miniature storm to lift himself off the ground, feeling very heavy as he sat on little more than air currents and his knowledge of air pressure, felt _very_ different than this levitation.

The other Jace took a shot," You know, our telekinetic prowess isn't that great. It'd be great if you—"

"If I didn't listen to him, what makes you think I'll listen to you," Ral loftily said, confident he'd win the argument and be free to keep playing around.

"Because I'd actually drop you," he answered coldly.

"So would I," the younger Jace said with a grin that mimicked Ral's typical smugness.

Ral let his gaze jump between both of them, making eye contact and trying to determine if they were bluffing. With a pained sighed, Ral let his legs fall lax and tried to cross his arms until he found he couldn't compensate for the extra bulk of his gear _and_ crystallized sap. With a full pout, he grumbled," You guys are no fun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've broken 100k, and it feels a little unreal. I wish I was doing a little better mentally so I could enjoy this moment.


End file.
